Waste Not, Want All
by Covington
Summary: Part I of Waste Not, Want All is now Done.Bond Pursues Julio Acosta to stop his drug smuggling but Acosta has a darker secret waiting in the wings of his vast fortune.
1. Death in the World's Paradise

Chapter 1:

Death in the World's Paradise 

He stood there as the sun glared persistently on his face. He squinted a little but wasn't distracted to the point where he couldn't keep his eyes on the man across the small narrow road. Clay stood in front of the World's Paradise, a rich, but overall plain little hotel that looked over the ocean; the name of the hotel was derived from the slogan of the island. Clay initially wanted to smoke a cigarette but the heat was unbearable to him and he didn't feel like smoking would make it any better. There was a lot going on, on the street of the hotel two men were quarreling over the lost of a bet, a woman was loudly advertising the melons she wanted to sell, her baby crying and creaming at her ankles, the three boys playing marbles and across the street, the man he was watching talking to a group of other, less classy looking men, standing in a row that wasn't in any noticeable order, however to Clay they did look as if they were lined up from highest class to lower class, though the highest classman didn't look near the same level as the lead man. The lead man gestured vaguely, his arms moved in languid ways, not really making a gesture at anything but moving from sheer nerves, he also shifted his weight a lot, and from what Clay could tell it wasn't from impatience but yet some other kind of nervous tick. Clay noticed that the man and the people he was talking to were being avoided, the other people on the street, people passing by, natives, they all seem to avoid them. In fact that was the other thing that Clay noticed, all the men were foreigners. It wasn't that interesting, most of the businesses on the little island were owned by foreign companies, most of them American. American companies found themselves on this island simply because America was just too hard a place to refine a business in, it was easier to start a business here, fortify something that the locals couldn't live without and raise prices so they were profitable but slightly within affordable range and then expand the business.

That's why Clay was here, there was a business that had originated in New Mexico, the business moved from the state but transferred all its merchandise back into America, the American government had came to believe the business was trafficking drugs from the island into the country and warned the island's government to deal with the problem, the small island government found nothing though and sent a detailed report of their investigation back to the American government on the company's dealings. However that did not convince the American government that there wasn't anything going on. The C.I.A. initially couldn't do anything, they had no clue what drugs were being brought into the country and they didn't have any real reason to suspect the business, so what they did is what they were good at. Sneaking around. They sent Clay to find something wrong with the company, and for the last two weeks he had been following this man, from island to island and found absolutely nothing to accuse the man of, however this island was listed as his base of operations, so if he didn't find anything here he'd just go back and report on his findings, or in this case his lack there of.

After what seemed to be a long period of deliberation, the men broke up and the lead man quickly jumped into a car and it sped off somewhere up the road, Clay jumped into his own cab, he ushered for the man to follow in the cab to follow the other and picked up the phone installed into the cab and dialed.

"Yes…" Clay said a bit frustrated. "…It's almost been three weeks I haven't found anything, I'm following him back somewhere, will check in when done, over." Clay hung up the phone, and sat back, he could see the car ahead of him, it drove a quickly and moved through traffic on the narrow road. From the back window he could see the man talking to the driver as the sped in and out of traffic, when the car slowed down Clay had his driver back down a bit the speed at which they were driving was in itself suspicious, and the driver obeyed and slowed down, the car they were pursing stopped for a moment, before going down a alley that had no other cars in it.

"Sir?" the driver asked. Clay peeked around form inside the car. It didn't seem like a smart idea to follow him in the car, no one would follow this man unless they worked for him, it was obvious, he didn't felt there was any immediate danger however.

"Stay here…" Clay said as he took out his gun, he also picked up the phone. "…I've followed him to what seems to an old abandoned building complex, I'm continuing the search on foot." He put the phone down and patted his driver on the back.

"Be careful sir." The driver said.

"Don't worry."

Clay walked out of the car and down the alley in a slight jog to catch up with the car a bit. He peeked around corners, making mental notes of his surroundings. It seemed as if this guy owned the rest of the abandoned area, it was made of a series of buildings that Clay assumed could have easily doubled as manufacturing facilities on the inside, all the windows were tinted and despite the fact that the buildings weren't in the best of shape, it would take a good amount of money to get all the windows tinted. From what he could tell this was once a small town, when the businesses started moving in people moved into the interior of the city, and when this guy came along it was all just a bunch of property and all he had to do was pay for it. However it was obvious where the town square was, all the paths lead to the center, where a large building was. The largest of the buildings was obviously a manufacturing building, and there was a garage that the car he followed was parking in, Clay ran quickly and made his way inside unnoticed.

The inside was a complicated sight; the entire inside was a maze of different sorts of equipment, the entire place was alive with machinery and processing equipment. It was almost as if the building was alive and this was the inside of its body. There were plenty of crates everywhere, Clay took notice of them and most of them were from the island, some were from New Mexico and most seemed to be empty, he snooped around them and peeked around. He kept his gun at his side out in the open. It didn't make sense, there weren't any guards around anywhere. Clay wasn't sure if anything wrong going on here but still this man had gone out of his way to buy all of these abandoned buildings in such a remote part of the tiny island, if he was keeping something secret there would be guards around.

A strange crate caught his eye, and he looked around before, going over to the crate, he inspected it. The writing wasn't English, and it wasn't French either, which is what the natives sometimes spoke. In fact it was… Afghani. Clay felt a wave of adrenaline rip through him, he hadn't been aware that they were trading outside to Afghanistan, certainly the C.I.A. would find this to be an interesting fact. Clay had determined he had seen enough, and wanted to report back immediately. Clay turned to leave but he lights went out. Clay Gripped his gun, he knew he had been caught, it was obvious. The machinery shut off and the lights came back on. Clay looked left and right, he kept his gun ready, there was clanking around the giant building and it was loud, intended to frighten Clay. The lights went out again, but quickly came back on, more clanking but closer. Clay found a stack of crates to hide behind. The lights went off and on quickly and the clanking seemed to be right upon him. The lights went off and stayed like that for a while. Clay waited in silence, there was nothing, not even his heartbeat was going in a quick enough state to be heard, and then something hit his neck!

He jolted up and swung in the direction it had come from. The lights came back on and in front of Clay were a group of black beads. Clay kneeled down, and picked them up, he touched them smelled them and he thought he recognized the smell and if he were right then…

Clay threw a handful of the beads into his mouth and chewed. He was right, he picked up more. They weren't beads but seeds in fact.

"Poppy seeds?" Clay said to himself. That was the last thing Clay saw too, the cold metal on the back of his neck was there and gone in a second. Clay wasn't even able to process that he was being held at gunpoint before he was dead, a moment later the machinery started back up again.


	2. Bed of Lies

Chapter 2:

Bed of Lies

Dressed in only a navy blue bath robe the woman fiercely held the gun towards the bed, her face remained plastered with an attitude that reeked of reckless anger. She moved over to the dresser and picked of the phone, never taking her eyes off the bed which she still had the gun aimed at. For only a moment she looked away to dial the numbers and she waited for an answer.

"Yes, I have him." She snapped into the phone, her voice contradicted all of the angry confidence that was being exuded from her face. She nodded as someone surely answered on the other end of the phone call. She hung the phone up quickly and walked closer to the bed and removed the sheets.

"Do you mind?" Bond asked lazily, he looked, passed her the entire time, at the door, the gun in her hand was of concern but he could deal with her, even if he was minimally clothed. He shifted on the bed into a more comfortable position, and an easier way to see the door beyond her enormous pair of breast. She snapped closer to Bond and held the gun to his face.

"SHUT UP!" she demanded. Bond Shrugged his shoulders and picked up a box of cigarettes from the nightstand next to the bed, he looked through the drawers for his lighter he fumbled about through things, a bible of which, he looked back at the voluptuous woman.

"Amen" he said to himself. He continued going through the drawers.

"What are you doing…?" She demanded moving the gun closer. "Stop!" she yelled even louder she grabbed him and moved him back flat on the bed. Bond didn't fight back.

"Could I at least have my clothes…?" Bond asked aggravated. "…there's a bit of a draft in here." The woman looked around suspiciously, and then at Bond's pants that lay folded on the chair, she backed up to them and watched Bond intently, she patted the pants for any guns or gadgets he was known so much for, she felt nothing. She took a deep breath, she didn't trust him, but she wanted to give him his pants.

"You won't try anything?" She asked cautiously. Bond shrugged, he gestured at his barley clothed body.

"I think I've used up all my tricks a few minutes ago." He said. She threw the pants at him, and he caught them, he swung his legs over the side of the bed and put the pants on. "I don't suppose I could get my shirt." He asked.

"Just shut up and get in the bed." She snapped. Bond shrugged and stood up to stretch.

"I've heard that before." He said, he put his knee on the bed and had his back to her.

"Turn around!" She demanded. Bond flung around and threw the pillow at her and threw himself off the side of the bed, the woman shot and missed, and Bond got up quickly and wrestled with her for a moment and screamed harshly cursing him as he tore the gun from her grip and threw her on the bed. She spun on her back and glared at Bond.

"Bastard!" she spat at him, Bond shrugged.

"Just shut up and stay in the bed." He said plainly, Bond picked up his shirt and buttoned it and put on his gun strap and but on his jacket. As he put his last arm through the jacket there was a knock on the door. The woman looked as if she was going to scream but Bond motioned at the gun.

"Let them in." he ordered gesturing his head to he door. The woman got up and watched Bond, who in turn watched her, as she walked to the door. She gave him a look as she put her hand on the knob; Bond nodded at her and stood behind her, out of view from the people who would be in the doorway. She opened the door. There was a moment and as they began inside the room she screamed.

"Bond is loose!" Without any hesitation Bond pushed her down in front of the men violently and engaged the closes man with his drawn gun. Bond wasn't quick enough on the rebound after pushing the woman and the man got a clean punch on Bond sending his gun flying across the room. The two fought for a moment fist to fist, and Bond was too good for him, easily flipping him over and knocking him out. The other two men were inside the room quickly and Bond decided against going for his gun. The first man, who was the largest of the three, with a great big chest and very broad shoulders, threw his fist at Bond and landed it square in his chest, Bond groaned and fell back head over heels landing on the foot of the bed. The man pursued him and tossed his entire body at Bond, who quickly moved out of the way causing the man to land head first on the wooden bed post, quickly thinking Bond ducked as the smaller man swung a bat in his direction, for a second they just watched each other in silence. The man brought his bat down trying to hit Bond on his head but Bond was too fast and threw himself back, the bat landed on the man who was recovering from his head on collision with the bed and he instantly was knocked out. Bond bumped into the nightstand and it was a dead end, there was enough space to do much and the man wielding the bat was rushing towards him. Bond looked around for something to use and there wasn't much that would be of much use but there was a glass ashtray, without much thought Bond tossed it as hard as he could and the glass ashtray smashed and broke apart on the man's face. He fell like a rock to the ground and didn't move. Bond looked around, and saw his tie and hat on the char, he picked them up and went to the mirror and put them on. He walked over to the door and began to turn out the light but stopped.

"I'll leave the light on for you." He muttered as he closed the door. Bond walked over to the other side of the hallway and knocked on the door; a woman opened it and stared at him.

"Hello I'm terribly sorry to bother you but it seems that my phone is not working, do you mind if I use yours?" Bond asked, the woman watched him for a moment.

"No, come in." she said. Bond smiled and walked into her room which looked exactly like his, and went over to her phone he picked it up and dialed.

"Yes Universal exports please…" He waited. "…yes this is Bond, I've got the file I'll be in in about six hours…" he said. The woman came into sight with a bottle of champagne.

"Would you like a little champagne Mr.?" She started. Bond put his hand over the receiver.

"Bond…" he said. "…James Bond and yes I would enjoy that." The woman smiled.

"Good." She said, as she sat down onto the bed.

"…make that eight hours."

007 

Moneypenny typed fiercely on her typewriter with simple ease, she reflectively pushed the typewriter back into position when it reached its end, within five minutes she was done and she picked the paper out of the typewriter and went into M's office and then returned as soon as the door opened, she watched the door as an arm stuck inside and a familiar hat flew through the air and landed perfectly on the coat rack, Bond stepped in a moment later and looked over to his left, his face showed surprised to see there was nothing there, so he turned to his right sitting there at her desk was Ms. Moneypenny her desk was completely covered in flowers and cards of different types.

"Redecorating Moneypenny?" Bond asked. Moneypenny sniffed one of her flowers.

"Just a tad bit…" she said playfully. "...trying to keep a little fun in this drab place." She finished. Bond leaned closer with his hand behind his back.

"Is the old monster dragging you down?" he whispered. Moneypenny raised an eyebrow.

"No, this young one is just being a tease." She said. Bond smiled at her.

"Well, I guess I should retire then." Bond started into M's office.

"James!" Moneypenny exclaimed. James turned back to her with a reassuring smile, he revealed his arm behind his back, and the box of chocolates.

"Now, now Moneypenny…" Bond cooed. "…did you really think I'd forget your birthday?" Bond blew a kiss at her.

"Stranger things have happened." Moneypenny said. Bond winked at her.

"In this profession everything is stranger" Bond said and then he walked into M's office.

M's office never changed, it was almost like a museum to Bond's eyes, and M was always sitting at his chair smoking his pipe. M was somewhat of the display of the museum. Bond stood in the center of the room as M penned something down on a piece of paper. Bond patiently waited as M continued to ignore him and write what he was writing; Bond kept his arms behind his back and watched him.

"Sit down 007." M finally said still looking at his paper. Bond nodded and obediently sat down at the desk. M looked at him from behind his spectacles and took them off.

"Sir." Bond said. M put the pen downed and watched Bond.

"The American government has come to us with a…" M fished around for a word. "…favor." M finished.

"A favor?" Bond asked.

"Yes, they had a C.I.A. agent down in the Caribbean for a few weeks and yesterday he turned up dead."

"A dead agent in the Caribbean…?" Bond asked. "…it seems we have this problem more often than not, perhaps we should stop sending agents there-" Bond started.

"Bond this is serious…" M barked. "…The Americans believe that a business that was once in their country is smuggling drugs in and out of the country, they did their investigation and this agent turned up dead, they feel as if they have been spotted and its no longer a reasonable option to send C.I.A. agents there. So they've asked us to send a man down there to pick up where this other man left off." M explained.

"What types of drugs?" Bond asked.

"That's the interesting part of this…"

"There's always an interesting part." Bond muttered. M ignored his comment.

"The Americans don't know what drug, or if there even is a drug for that matter, but they assure us that he is smuggling something into the country, the claim to have 'reliable source'." M explained.

"So the Americans want us to go on a wild goose chase for them?" Bond asked. M seemed frustrated and shifted into his chair.

"It seems like they do, but I do believe them to a degree…" M explained. "…this Julio Acosta has shipments from various Caribbean islands to New Mexico and then back all within the course of a day." M said.

"It doesn't sound that suspicious to me." Bond says, M seemed to snap.

"But it does to me 007…" M barked again and passed Bond a manila envelope. "…this is operation 'Hoax' and I'm sending _you_ to do the investigation, you have a flight in about an hour to New Mexico where you will meet up with an old colleague from the American C.I.A. Moneypenny has your tickets, you may go 007." M dismissed and put his glasses back on. Bond stayed in the chair. "Is there a problem 007!" M asked aggravated.

"No sir." Bond stood up and walked out.

Moneypenny already had the ticket in her hand and waiting for Bond as he came out of M's office, dreamy eyed she looked at him.

"Back the Caribbean…?" Moneypenny asked, though she knew the answer already. "...they send you down there so often I think you should have a permanent residence down there." Moneypenny jested.

"Perhaps you would visit me sometime." Bond suggested.

"Yes and we could share a drink." Moneypenny daydreamed, Bond stood next to her cheek on cheek.

"On the patio." Bond offered softly.

"Under the palms trees." Moneypenny went on.

"Yes, listening to the crashing waves of the crystal blue sea." Bond offered some more as they reverie continued.

"and little James junior running around in the sand." Moneypenny said, with that Bond moved away and gave her a strange look.

"James Junior!" Bond asked surprised. Moneypenny nodded as if it were common knowledge.

"Well yes our little English bull dog…" Moneypenny mused. "…he'd have a shocking resemblance to you." Moneypenny continued. Bond chuckled.

"Now, now Moneypenny I wouldn't want to have to-" There was a loud click on the intercom on Moneypenny's desk.

"007 I said an hour not a day until your next flight…" M's grumpy voice said irritated. "…get cracking 007." The intercom clicked again. Bond gave a look of slight dissatisfaction.

"Moneypenny, M mentioned that I'd be meeting an old colleague from the C.I.A…." Bond explained. "..Who is it?" Moneypenny smiled.

"I won't spoil the surprise…" Moneypenny said. "…but let's just say they're out of this world." Bond gave her a look.

"Moneypenny, only you are 'out of this world'." Bond said.

"Too bad you'll never find out how." Moneypenny said, and with that and a smile Bond left MI6 office.


	3. The Friend in The Desert

Chapter Three

The Friend in the Desert

When Bond landed in New Mexico he was greeted by a small fragile looking man who looked far too intimidated to be anyone of any concern. The little man in fact was very helpful, he escorted Bond to the car and explained that for safety reasons Bond was being 'deposited' in the desert and he'd be picked up by his C.I.A. counterpart.

"Why the middle of the desert?" Bond asked. The small man looked into the rear view mirror at Bond, his face explained that he didn't like the idea much either.

"They say this way they can ensure no one will be watching you, the C.I.A. suspects a mole." The man explained.

"A mole…" Bond repeated, that complicated matters. "…any suspects?" Bond asked. The little man shook his head.

"Not as of yet." He answered. Bond nodded, that just meant to trust absolutely no one.

"What do you know about the case?" Bond asked. The man didn't say anything for a moment and didn't look away from the road.

"I know that it sounds silly and that you as a decorated British agent must be insulted to be sent on something so vague." The man said. Bond smiled.

"Besides that." Bond said.

"Well I know that this guy has been shipping things in and out of the country and that's suspicious cause there's not much you can do in a day's time…"the man said. "…and why pay shipping taxes if you could do it in the country?" the man said. Bond nodded.

"What about this man, Julio Acosta?" Bond asked.

"There's nothing on him, he opened a business in America which failed and he moved it to the Caribbean, and that's all we know." The man said.

"That's not much to go on." Bond said, the little man nodded.

"This whole case is not much to go on…" He said, the man stopped the car at an empty stretch of road. "…this is it, they told me to give you this map and that you'd be alright, I'm terribly sorry about all of this." He apologized.

"I'll be fine thank you." Bond said, he opened the door and walked out of the car, the little man in the car waved and drove off and Bond looked at the map. The map was one you could find in the airport, and marked by the road in green letters was: "You are here." A little ways ahead of the road in the desert in orange letters was: "you want to be here, by 5:15pm" Bond looked at his watch, it read 4:30. he frowned. Above the orange letters in bold red letters were: "Hurry up Bond!" Bond frowned again and began into the desert.

The extreme heat didn't really bother him; he did however feel as if he was wasting his time walking around in the desert looking for the C.I.A. it all seemed a little ridiculous, as if someone was playing a joke on him. He didn't like jokes. Judging by the cheap airline map they gave him, Bond thought he was in the right place, he looked around, it was deserted, nothing seemed out of place for a desert, there was a lot of sand and it was hot. The more Bond stood there the more aggravated he became. He looked at the map a handful of times to make sure he had gone in the right direction. He looked at his watch, 5:13 it read. He was early, but where were these C.I.A. agents? He contemplated going back the road and finding a way to get in touch with MI6, he looked at the watch, 5:14 and fifty seconds, he looked around all he could see was sand, sometimes mounds of sand, he looked back at the watch, 5:15. A loud creak startled Bond and he reached for his gun, to his surprised he saw the mound of sand closes to him had opened up and a man came out, Bond looked at the structure, still surprised that he hadn't noticed it.

"Ah Mr. Bond, you're on time…" The man called out, Bond began to walk towards him. "…please this way." The man walked back into the sand hill and Bond followed. When Bond was inside the door closed behind him with a loud clang and then an even louder click. The inside looked almost exactly like the MI6 office and there were people doing various things all around, when he turned a corner two C.I.A. agents saluted him and walked on. The man who escorted him in pointed to a door.

"Through that door Mr. Bond." He said and walked off, Bond entered the room. The room was simple one large table and a map of the word, sitting at the table were three men and one familiar woman.

"Ms. Goodhead…" Bond said happily surprised. "…what a pleasure to see you again." Bond said.

"I'm sure it is…" she said. "...007" she concluded. Bond sat down at the table where she gestured.

"When M told me I'd be meeting an old colleague I didn't know he meant one with such beauty and grace I would have-" Bond started.

"Bond if you could not be such an incorrigible gentleman for one moment, it would help us get this meeting running." M's grumpy voice said. Bond looked around for M.

"Yes sir, excuse me." Bond continued looking and for a moment there was silence as they all watched Bond look for M.

"Over here 007!" M snapped, Bond turned to his left and a screen turned on where the map once was. M's grumpy face looked over the room.

"Now, this meeting has been called in emergency…" Goodhead relayed. "…Julio Acosta has made his way into the country again, we follow his normal shipping patterns and it is not a regular visit." Goodhead revealed.

"Apparently he's come to see some stock car race, one of our sources revealed that he is a fanatic in stock car racing." M said. Bond sat up more in his chair.

"Sources…?" he asked. "…I was under the impression the Americans knew nothing about this man and that's why they asked for our help." Bond said. All the American's looked at M, who became a bit flush.

"There is someone who has come along and has been giving us information about this Acosta character." M said.

"Is this person reliable?" Bond asked, for once M smirked.

"That's what we're assigning you to find out…" M said.

"I see." Bond said.

"…Ms. Goodhead believed that you would be better meeting this person and getting information out of her." M said Bond looked at Goodhead.

"I wonder why she thought that." Bond muttered.

"I do too." M said. Bond was surprised he had heard him.

"We're going to take you into town where you're supposed to be meeting her." Goodhead said.

"I'm being monitored?" Bond simply asked.

"No Bond, you're free to use any means possible to break down this source and get all the information you can. Ms. Goodhead will be signing you up for the stock car race tomorrow that you'll have to win to meet Julio Acosta at his estate and find out what you can." M explained. Bond nodded.

"So operation 'Hoax' is still in effect?" Bond asked M, again all the Americans looked at M.

"Good day 007." M said and the screen became a map again, Bond looked around the room and smiled.

"Shall we get going?" he asked.

Holly Goodhead was a C.I.A. agent that Bond had come into contact with when he was assigned to find the missing _Moonraker_ space shuttle, at first she disguised herself as an astronaut for Drax industries, having exceptional skill in science Goodhead fit right in, it wasn't until later that Bond realized she was a C.I.A. agent and they were working together, to stop the megalomaniac Hugo Drax from annihilating human life on earth.

"We'll be taking the desert tram, it's a train system that people rarely use since it's so expensive and a very long ride, we'll take that into town and you'll rendezvous with your assignment there." Goodhead explained.

"I see, and when we'll we have our own rendezvous?" Bond asked. Goodhead looked at Bond shocked by his boldness.

"James I hope you realize-" Goodhead started.

"For dinner that is to discuss the workings of our mission…" Bond said, Goodhead gave him a look, a look he recognized from the time he had been shocked at her being the astronaut and her reaction.

"Mr. Bond the C.I.A. and MI6 will keep me up to date." Goodhead pointed out.

"Ms. Goodhead you can never be too up to date." Bond insisted.

007 

The tram was a long train ride indeed, it stretched sixty miles, on a electric track, it was the most modern for of train transportation and could move at blinding speeds. Like the rest of his C.I.A. meeting the tram was in the desert only he and Goodhead went and the tram was waiting for them. Quickly they boarded and sat down. The tram was full of windows everywhere Bond looked he could see the desert, he let Goodhead sit down and then he followed.

"Between you and me, I think there's a lot more going on than both of our governments are prepared to admit." Goodhead said in a low tone, Bond nodded, he also felt there was something happening that neither of them could see.

"I'm sure if there is something happening, it'll present itself…" Bond said. "…what I'm more concerned with is this mole." He confessed.

"I know, just keep your eyes open they always slip up at some point and time, we need to be more concerned with Julio himself and this person you're meeting." Goodhead instructed. Bond looked at her with a surprised smirk.

"Yes sir." He said.

The train moved quickly, more quickly than Bond could have imagined, for American technology that is, after a half hour the train stopped and let some people on and continued again, another half hour and the ticket clerk came into their car, Bond took his and Goodhead's ticket and prepared to give it to the ticket clerk when…

"Don't move!" the ticket clerk ordered.


	4. Off Track

Chapter Four.

Off Track

Bond looked up at him without much surprise and saw the clerk holding a gun the two of them, the men who had boarded the train last moved in closer.

"I guess you don't want this." Bond said putting the tickets on the chair.

"Your guns, give them to me!" the clerk ordered, Bond reached in for the gun and the man put the gun closer to assure Bond not to make any moves, Bond took out the gun and gave it to him.

"Do be careful with that, the safety is off" Bond said. The ticket clerk seemed enraged by Bond's comment.

"SHUT UP!" he ordered, his eye darted towards Goodhead and the other men were now very close to them. Goodhead picked up her handbag, and Bond had to conceal his smirk.

"Her!" one of the men yelled. The ticket clerk snatched the handbag out of Goodhead's hand.

"How rude." Bond said, the clerk looked at him again with a silencing look and Bond looked away. The clerk looked at the little handbag and inspected it, and then he opened it.

Gas shot out immediately and the man was taken so aback that he fell backwards, Bond and Goodhead were up in a flash and Bond quickly went after his gun, the other men jumped into a fight. Goodhead was quick and snapped punches at the men with speed and precision, one man grabbed her arm and she quickly took him and flipped him over, ending his day by slamming her high heel on his chest, the other men went after Bond, who again, wasn't able to get his gun, he grappled with one man for a moment and a second came and punched him in the gut, quickly thinking Bond elbowed backwards and sent the man into the chair, the man he was grappling with grabbed him and threw him sending Bond into the window, the glass smashed and the two of them battle in a stiff fight. The man who fell into the chair was quickly up and Goodhead had him covered, she slapped him initially and he tried to backhand slap her back but she grabbed his hand and smashed his head into a wall, she then grabbed Bond's gun off the ground and smashed it over the man Bond was fighting with and he fell to the ground. Bond looked at Goodhead wide eyed.

"Thank you..." He said, he took his gun from her. "…come on go into the next car!" he ordered. Goodhead obeyed and ran to the end of the train car and opened the door and ran out into he open space between cars and then into the next car, Bond followed behind her but when he was in the open space he could see a speck in the distance moving in the same direction as the train and getting closer, he knew it was a motorcycle and that this would be more difficult than he thought, but he ignored it for now and went into the next car.

"James!" Goodhead yelled as soon as he was in, past her he could see another set of men coming towards them, this time with guns. Bond took one shot and hit the closest one in the chest, next to Bond and Goodhead was a conductor's booth, quickly he smashed all his body weight into the door and it opened.

"Get in!" Bond ordered, she stepped in and Bond after her just when the bullets started coming to them. In the cramped space Bond stood as far away from the bullets as possible, frequently, when the bullets took a pause, he'd look out and take shots. Bond stole a glance at Goodhead and she looked terrified.

"James…" she muttered worriedly, Bond look out took another shot.

"Don't worry everything is fine." Bond tried t say reassuringly.

"…No James, look!" Goodhead pointed and Bond followed her finger.

A bomb.

Bond rolled his eyes, and realized that there wasn't much firing going on, he looked out and saw they were rushing to the booth.

"Stay down!" Bond threw himself out the booth and took a shot and hit the man coming with the automatic weapon, the other men stopped shocked, at Bond's sudden appearance and that gave Bond the chance to go after the automatic. Quickly he had it and ordered Goodhead to stay behind him, the thugs hid behind the chairs which were seated in rows not facing Bond so he couldn't see behind them. Bond stayed alert for when one of the men would dart out from behind the men and try to take a-

A man popped up and Bond shot quickly hitting him, for some reason this seemed to set off the other men because they all jumped up, however none of them had guns and Bond made quick work of them. The low rumble of the train speeding along on the track was the only sound for a moment, but Bond heard something else, he knew what it was, a louder groaning sound.

"On the ground!" Bond yelled and Goodhead threw herself on the ground and Bond did the same. The bullets rained into the train with a loud chaotic set of explosions, on top of that the loud roar of the motorcycles made the situation even more chaotic.

"Into the next car, come on!" Bond yelled as he put the gun into its holster and crawled to the exit. He did so rapidly and realized when he was close enough to the door the motorcycles had pulled off ahead; they must have anticipated his move so he stood up. Not a second after he did stand up, the door opened up and a huge man stood there, Bond didn't have the time to react, the man grabbed Bond and lifted him over his head and tossed him down the aisle, Bond quickly rebounded but the moment he did the motorcycles had fell back in range of him, so Bond was forced to drop back down to the floor. Bond looked around but couldn't see Goodhead anywhere, the motorcycles pulled off and the huge man once again had Bond but this time he pointed him at the window and through him out.

Bond thought fast and was able catch on to the window frame and hang there for a few seconds before throwing himself off. He rolled like a ball and eventually came to a stop, he looked up and saw a motorcycle had pulled off and was coming towards him. Bond faked himself being knocked out and laid on the ground motionless, he had already taken his gun out, the bike got closer by the second and the biker pulled up the automatic gun ready to shoot, before the man could even aim Bond had rolled over and took his shot hitting the man square in the chest. The bike swiveled a bit before the biker fell off and the bike hit the ground. Bond got up as fast as he could and picked the bike up and jumped on and began to speed his way to catch up with the train. All Bond thought about was Goodhead, he hadn't seen her before he was ejected from the train and the bomb, it was set for another half hour which meant it was planned to be detonated at the receiving station in town. Bond raced faster and he could see the other biker still driving his bike next to the train. Bond got his bike next to the window he was thrown out of and stayed leveled with it for a moment before tossing himself back inside, he could hear the bike crashing to the ground behind him. When he stood up he was in time to see Goodhead stab the huge man with a pen, the man laughed and grabbed Goodhead and began to sling her over his shoulder, but his body became very rigid and he fell over. Bond rushed over to Goodhead, who was extremely surprised to see him.

"James…!" she yelled. Bond looked at the huge man lying on the floor.

"I guess the pen is mightier than the sword." He said.

"…James the bomb!" Goodhead reminded him. Bond nodded and looked over to the next car which was the main conductor's both.

"Lets get in there and see if we can stop the train!" Bond yelled. The two of them rushed into the next car and the remaining motorcyclist tried to shoot them but missed, inside the main control area Goodhead went to work, she sat down and looked around and pressed buttons and flipped controls.

"This doesn't look good James!" Goodhead yelled over the roar of the train and the motorcycle racing.

"What's wrong?" Bond asked, he leaned over to see the controls.

"All the controls are jammed I don't think I can make anything of it." She confessed. Bond shook his head.

"So you can't stop this thing!" Bond asked, Goodhead turned to him and she shook her head.

"I could try a little longer but…" Goodhead trailed off. Bond shook his head.

"No come on we'll go after the bomb!" He yelled. The two of them ran back out of the car and into the previous one and the motorcyclist continued with the shooting and Goodhead and Bond made it to the conductor's booth with the bomb, again Goodhead went to work, but she didn't touch the bomb.

"It's rigged!" she alerted him, Bond frowned.

"Damn!" He spat, she looked at him.

"I'm pretty sure I could defuse it but the train is moving too much it's a wonder it hasn't gone off already!" She yelled. Bond looked around.

"It's not worth it…" He said. "…somehow we have to stop this train!" Bond yelled, Goodhead thought but she couldn't think of anything.

"But how James?" she asked, he thought for a moment and in his eyes she could see something had come to mind.

"Follow me, come on!" He ordered.

They were back into the aisle again but this time Bond engaged the motorcyclist head on, shooting at him until he got his shot and caused the biker to fall off and the bike to disappear, he ran off ahead and looked at the connector for the first two cars, he pulled at it and kicked it and tried to move it but it was stuck, he cursed and ran back to Goodhead. He pushed her into the previous car and kicked the connector as he made is way in.

"Go hold on to something!" Bond yelled, there wasn't much time only about five minutes left. The separation of cars jerked the car around a bit, and Bond ran over to the back of the car and opened the metal box marked 'emergency brake' without any thought Bond pulled the emergency brake and the entire car slammed and screeched as it began to stop, Bond fell and the cars shook violently as it came to a complete stop, quickly Bond got up and took Goodhead by the hand, he lead her outside were the motorcycle he had shot down a minute ago laid, he picked it up and got on.

"Get on!" He demanded, Goodhead didn't ask any questions and jumped on the back, Bond threw the motorcycle forward and started racing to catch up to the train. The sand that was kicked up from the cars that came to an unexpected end, blew into Bond and Goodhead's eyes, but that didn't slow Bond at all he moved the bike as fast as he could along the track trying to catch up to the runaway train. Suddenly the terrain became rough, Bond was taken totally by surprised and he realized this meant he was closer to the city, the terrain was becoming rock and slowly it would become concrete. Bond tried to speed the motorcycle some more and he was already at the back of the second car of the train, up ahead there was a hill and as he moved he could see the city coming into view, watched as he got closer and closer to the front of the train and eventually he was there, he wasn't sure if the bike could go any faster but he tried and he began to pull ahead of the train.

The buildings were starting to make come into view and take shape and the streets became noticeable, Bond would have to be quicker if he wanted to keep innocent people from dying, he looked behind him and the train was still too close to do what he planned. In his head he cursed there wasn't enough time, he began to wonder who had tipped the thugs to where they were and it was no doubt the mole, Bond could see that this would be a bigger problem than he wanted to deal with, it was also clear that if someone would go through the trouble of trying to have Bond and Goodhead killed then they obviously had something to hide, Bond had to laugh in his head, M was right again. Bond stole a glance back again and he saw he had pulled considerably away from the train. Bond knew he would have to be quick about this next procedure.

Bond pulled left quickly and he stopped the Bike.

"RUN!" he ordered Goodhead, she jumped off and ran as to the right pass the bike, Bond picked the bike up and rolled it to the track, he made sure it was secure and saw that the train was very close and speeding towards him. Bond ran off in Goodhead's direction as fast as he possibly could, not daring to look back and see the progress of the train. Up ahead Goodhead looked back and the look on her face was unmistakable, astonishment as the train slammed into the bike and the explosion took over the train. The explosion was so powerful it cleanly picked Bond several feet off the ground and slammed him back onto the ground. When the train crashed into the bike, the bike cause a rupture in the track and the train rolled over it and slid off the track and crashed onto the desert floor to the left, the explosion was massive, far larger than Bond could have anticipated, there was absolutely nothing left the entire train was destroyed and eaten by the hellish flames that erupted from the bomb. Debris rained from the sky but Bond and Goodhead were a safe distance away. Bond made it over to Goodhead.

"My god!" Goodhead exclaimed. Bond relayed the damage and helped Goodhead up.

"Next time I'll stay in the god damn cab."


	5. Late Registration

Chapter Five

Late Registration.

The bomb gave Bond and Goodhead a great deal of cover, the local officials went directly to the wreck and the two of them made their way into the town without incident. Goodhead explained that before Bond could see the woman who was helping them he was to stop off and get a car from Q, and that agent's in the town would take them to Q. Bond agreed that it would be a good idea to get a car from Q being that they always came in handy. The two of them walked for an hour to the city and another half hour to the meeting place. Bond recognized the small man who drove him to the desert but there was another man there.

"Ms. Goodhead its good to see you alive, we were afraid you might not have been able to escape in time." The unfamiliar man said.

"Well thanks to Mr. Bond here I did…" Goodhead admitted, she gestured at Bond. "…Bond this is agent Morales he's been working close with us in trying to find Julio Acosta's shipments." Goodhead explained. The new man who was bland in features, except a set of ears that stuck up, put his hand out and shook Bond's hand.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Mr. Bond; our boss has said some great things about you." Morales said, Bond looked puzzled and smiled, something he did when he didn't quite understand.

"Boss?" Bond asked.

"Yes, Felix Leiter." Morales explained. Bond nodded.

Felix Leiter was one of Bond's good and only 'friends', Leiter was a C.I.A. agent with whom bond worked with more so than any others. Leiter had saved Bond's life a few times and Bond always returned the favor. One time, in a undocumented assignment in the Caribbean, Bond was sent to the Bahamas to investigate SPECTRE's high jacking of two atomic bombs, in which they used to hold the world hostage, after much searching Bond learned that Emilio Largo and an underwater army were transporting the bombs to Miami and bond intercepted them, and if it weren't for the help of Leiter and his crew of C.I.A. scuba divers Bond would have never been able to stop Largo's plan. Bond owed a lot to Leiter as well as the world did.

"Felix Leiter…" Bond repeated. "…will he be joining us?" Bond asked. The small man who drove Bond nodded.

"It's depending, after you have your rendezvous with the informant and Acosta himself, Felix asked me to evaluate the situation, and depending how everything goes I will ask him to join us here…" The small man said. "…Do to the mole we're keeping Leiter's location secret. I'm the only one who can get in touch with him as of now." The small man said.

"What's your name?" Bond asked. The small man smiled and reached to shake Bond's hand.

"Agent Gonzales." He answered. Bond nodded and took note of his name.

"You mentioned that I would be meeting Acosta…" Bond said. Goodhead nodded.

"Like we mentioned before there is a stock car race scheduled for tomorrow, we going to go sign you up for the race under an alias, Acosta meets up with the winner for dinner and if you win you'll have your chance." Goodhead explained. Bond nodded, sounded simple enough.

"Are we going for the car now?" Bond asked a little impatiently, they all agreed and they left.

007 

Q's laboratory was located in the basement of an appliance shop, Bond found this very amusing and when they came face to face with Q he couldn't keep a smirk from his face.

"Planning on opening up shop Q?" Bond asked, Q scowled at him and walked over to the car that was being observed by some of his workers.

"Oh grow up 007…" Q grumpily spat. "…why they keep sending me out on field missions just so you can destroy everything I make you is beyond me." Q groaned. Bond walked around and messed with some equipment he'd never seen.

"What am I getting this time?" Bond asked. Q looked at him with dissatisfaction.

"Nothing new I'm afraid…" Q said. "…this field assignment nonsense hasn't allowed me to make anything new; instead I had to refine some of your old gadgets." Q explained. Goodhead interrupted.

"Thank you Q for the new hand bag it came in handy." She kissed him on the cheek and he turned red.

"Q, you old devil." Bond teased; Q picked something off the table and handed to Bond.

"Oh buzz off 007…" Q complained. "Your old wrist watch as you may know fires a toxic dart, disabling your enemy in five seconds, the watch is also equipped with a non lethal laser that can burn through metal and a grappling hook that can hold up to 200 pounds, provided that you haven't gained a few pounds in the last few months, this should come in handy." Q explained, Bond took the watch and put it on.

"Anything else!" Bond asked, Q gave him a sharp look.

"If I could make it I'd give you a bit of patience 007…!" Q snapped at him. "…the other thing is your car." Q started.

"Good." Bond said, Q just gave him a look.

"Your Lotus Esprit was the only vehicle I could get fixed in time; you destroyed the other ones so much I'm starting to think that they are beyond repair." Q complained.

"Its all for her majesty Q I promise." Bond said.

"Same refinements, dual ground, water capabilities, front machine guns, an oil slick in the back, same as you left it Bond, except its not in a hundred thousand pieces!" Q complained.

"Q I never purposely destroy your works of art…" Bond explained. "…they just never pass the field test." Bond concluded.

"That's it Bond I have had enough of your childish antics get out of here!" Q yelled. Bond walked to Goodhead.

"Let's get going" Bond said.

The two of them left and were to meet Gonzales and Morales at the stock car racing registration, they drove around the small town in the Lotus Esprit to the estate where Julio Acosta lived, the registration was being held there, when they got there Gonzales and Morales were waiting for them. James stepped out of the car and Goodhead followed.

"Bad news Mr. Bond" Gonzales said, Bond arched his eyebrow.

"What happened?" Bond asked, Morales stepped forward.

"All the places have been taken, we tried to you to take Gonzales' place but we ran into Acosta at the registration and we can't pass you off as him." Morales explained.

"Why do you have a slot in the race?" Bond asked. Goodhead stepped in front of him.

"We thought that it would be safer to have two people on our side enter the race…" Goodhead started. "..A lot of these guys are professionals and we know for a fact that Gonzales is a professional stock car driver." Goodhead explained. Bond nodded and looked passed the gate into Acosta's estate, there was a get together inside.

"Do we know where some of the drivers are staying?" Bond asked.

"Yes they're all staying in the same hotel." Goodhead answered.

"Have they all met with Acosta?" Bond continued. Gonzales shook his head.

"I saw the registry sheet there's one guy still in his hotel room." Gonzales answered.

"O.K. Goodhead come with me, the two of you go back to the train and see if you can get something left of the bomb for Q to analyze that mat give us a clue on who's trying so hard to kill us." Bond said. Gonzales and Morales went off to their car and Bond and Goodhead jumped back into the car.

"What hotel are they in?" Bond asked, Goodhead pointed in the direction of the hotel.

"The _Estrella de fuego_…" Goodhead told but with a bit of skepticism, she didn't know what was happening and she didn't like not knowing what was coming next. "…what are we going to do?" Goodhead asked. Bond pulled the car off.

"We aren't going to do anything; you're going to stay in the car and wait for me to come back." Bond explained, Goodhead anxiously waited for Bond to explain what he was going to do.

"What about you James?" She finally asked. Bond turned a corner.

"I'm gong to go inside and switch places with the driver." Bond explained. Goodhead didn't see the plan as workable.

"But what about the security…?" Goodhead asked immediately. "…If they see you they'll recognize you tomorrow." Goodhead said. Bond turned another corner and stopped the car in front of the hotel.

"I'll take extra care." Bond said and before Goodhead could protest anymore Bond was out of the car and heading up the steps to the entrance of the hotel.


	6. Hotel Issues 1

Chapter Six.

Hotel Issues #1 

The second Bond was in the door he noticed a man patrolling around, the man didn't worry him at all but instead it was the MP5KA4 9 x 19 mm at his side that worried Bond. Bond wasn't exactly sure why hotel secruity would be so well equiped, as far as Bond knew no one knew he was in the country yet except the C.I.A. and MI6, so perhaps this secruity was worried about something else, but then again there was the mole, he realized that this was going to be harder than he thought. Quietly Bond snuck around staying behind the man who was walking away from him, Bond took in all his surroundings, he knew if there was one guard with a semi automatic weapon there could very well be one hundred. To his right there was stairwell that spiraled up one flight and lead to a balcony that went over to the left and into another area of the hotel. Under the balcony, on the first floor, there was the receptionist desk and to the left of that was an underpass to the other part of the hotel. Bond creeped behind the man keeping his eye out for any other guards and when he was close enough he grabbed the man and slammed him against the wall, the man fell to the ground as if he had no bones and collapsed, Bond took the body and he put it into a closet close by. Quickly Bond made his way to the receptionist desk and looked at the check in/out book. Immedietly he noticed that there were eleven people had checked in and out and one had not, that made twelve people in all togeher which meant the hotel was only holding the stock car racers, the majority had checked out too, and judging from their planned returning times, which all were blank, they weren't coming back. Steps got Bond attention and he put himself flat on the floor behind the desk, when he was on the floor he realized he wasn't alone, next to him was the dead receptionist. Bond couldn't piece together what was going here, why would they kill the receptionist if they worked at the hotel? Maybe they didn't shoot him? Maybe someone came in here and killed the recptionist without them knowing? Bond quickly threw away that idea becasuse the amount bullet wounds were consitant with the type of gun he saw the guard carrying. The guard walked passed the desk and grunted a bit and walk in the direction away from Bond. Silently Bond got up and put the man into the sleeper hold pressing his right arm around the guards neck and pressing his bicep against one side of the guards neck and the inner bone of the forearm against the other side. For a moment the guard flung his arms around but within seconds he was subdued and laying next to the dead receptionist. Bond looked at the receptionist book and saw the remaining racer was in a room upstairs. Bond coverlty went back to the staircase but when he got there a guard that was patrolling was there. Bond frowned and went back to the desk and into the dining area that was beyond the receptionist desk, he looked around and saw that there were more guards patrolling the upper area, he sighed, Bond hid under the left side of the second floor, Bond checked the doors and one of them opened. Quietly Bond stepped inside and looked around, the rooms, at least some of them, seemed to be connected. Bond walked over to a door and knocked twice. There was no answer and he opened it, from within that room he went to the main entrance and checked where the guards were. They all seemed to be on the other side, Quickly he ran out the room and began to climb on top of a marble statue that was aligned with the wall, he kept his eye opened for the guards and they were completely clueless to what was happening, Bond threw himself over the railing and landed on the ground without incident, before the guard came back Bond tried to find safe haven in the nearest room, but it was locked. Bond looked around trying to find a room that might be unlocked, Bond heard something and across the hall. A guard. Bond ran to another door and turned the knob, it was locked too. The Guard turned the corner but didn't see Bond, Bond threw himself over the railing and held on so when the guard looked over Bond wasn't visible. Bond hung there uncomfortably for what seemed to be ten minutes as the man slowly walked over, the man walked right next to Bond and looked around as Bond hung suspended next to him, as the man slowly moved away another man appeared on the first floor and was in plain sight of Bond, alarmed that if the man bothered to look up he would see him, Bond flung his body back over the railing in absolute silence standing right behind the man he took a step towards the door, hoping he could get to a little niche between the rooms where a piece of pottery was laid, it was evident that Bond wasn't going to make it to the niche without the man noticing his movements, So Bond took off his jacket and placed it on the rail and ducked into the niche, and as Bond suspected the man turned around, but instead going towards the niche the man was drawn to Bond's jacket. The man picked it up and had his back towards Bond, that was all Bond needed, he threw himself forward and grabbed the man and pulled him back towards the niche, Bond took the man's head and pounded it against the wall as hard as he could, making a dull thud, the man still fought back a little and Bond did it again and again until the man went limp. Bond laid the man in the niche and took off his jacket; he then turned his back to the railing and backed up sitting down on it.

"What's going on up there!" the man on the first floor asked, Bond waved his hand for the man to go away, the man watched Bond, but since he was in the other man jacket and not facing the man, he could tell the difference, so he grunted and went back to patrolling, Bond stepped off the rail and put his own jacket back on and laid the other on the man's body. Bond looked at the nearest room door, judging by how the numbers were going; the racer's room was the room in the left corner just on the other side. Bond looked around, he didn't see anyone, but he did pull out his gun, and went across, he went to the door and went to turn the knob when he smelled something. Smelled like a cigarette, Bond hadn't seen any of the other guards smoking so it meant there was someone beyond the door smoking, so someone was standing right next to the door. In that case, Bond knocked.

"Who's there?" A gruff voice answered on the other end, Bond said nothing and waited, the man didn't open the door so he knocked again, again the man asked who was there and Bond said nothing, and knocked, he heard on the other side that the man had grabbed the knob, so Bond put his back against the wall. The door opened, and the guard poked his head out, without wasting any time Bond pistol whipped the man and when the guard fell to the floor he hit him one more time over the head. To Bond's surprise the door opened up to a little path, and on the end of the path was another door, that must have been the room. Bond dragged the body into the path and closed the door and continued to the other door. Bond put his ear to the door and listened, all he could hear was whistling. Bond knocked.

"Who is it?" A less gruff voice answered. Bond looked around again.

"Security." He answered simply, Bond could hear a slight hesitation on the other side of the door but then he heard the door open. The last racer looked nothing like Bond; he was short and stocky with bland features and a nose that seemed to go on. Bond offered a professional smile.

"Is there a problem?" The man asked. Bond shook his head.

"You're very late for the reception; I've come to make sure you're on your way." Bond answered. The man nodded understandably.

"I'm sorry about the wait; I'm trying to make sure that I have everything in order." The man stepped into the room and went over things; bond stepped in too cautiously and closed the door behind him.

"It all right…" Bond took out his gun, and walked over to the man who was going through his closet, Bond put the gun directly on his back. "..Don't move. Bond ordered. The man reflectively put his hands up.

"Don't kill me." He whispered, Bond smiled, behind the man's back.

"Then do what I say…" Bond ordered. The man nodded.

"Anything." The man agreed.

"…turn around..." The man began to turn around. "…slowly!" Bond snapped, the man slowed down considerably until he was facing Bond. The man looked terrified and Bond kept his stone glare.

"Who are you?" The man asked. Bond push the gun into the man's gut.

"I ask the questions…" Bond forcefully demanded. "…now, what do you know about Julio Acosta?" Bond asked. The man fumbled around for a moment,

" He's a stock car fanatic…" The racer said. "…he loves them once a year he-"

"Tell me something else, what businesses is he in?" Bond asked, the man again thought fumbling over words.

"I know he went to medical school but dropped out and then went to school for botany." The man said. Bond looked puzzled. _Botany?_ He thought.

"What does he do now?" Bond asked. The man looked genuinely confused at this.

"I'm not entirely sure, something with some kind of food." The man answered. Bond looked passed the man and pushed him into the closet, he then took his racing outfit off the rack.

"Give me your wallet..." Bond ordered, the man went through his pockets and Bond trusted that he wouldn't try anything, the man pulled out his wallet, Bond took it and went through it and took out all his pictures I.D.s and put them in his pocket.

"…now I want you to sit down and listen…" Bond took out a pen and pressed it down the top so the point came out. "…this is a highly explosive bomb, if you speak to loud or even move too much it'll go off." Bond said.

"What?" the man asked concerned.

"Just be very still and very quiet until someone comes for you." Bond said, the man looked terrified, Bond smiled and closed the door. After closing the door he held it shut with a nearby chair and looked out the window, it wasn't a far jump o the ground, and there was a balcony there too, so he opened the window and jumped on the balcony and then to the ground. He smoothed out his jacket and went back to the car where Goodhead was anxiously waiting; he stepped in and told her to drive.

"What did you do James?" she asked surprised. Bond put the racing outfit in the back.

"I got a new change of clothes, it was simple exchange…" Bond said. "… I need you to take the suit and these I.D.s to Q and tell him to make a suit that'll fit me in the exact same design and to make the I.D.s with my picture on it, I need them for tomorrow." Bond said, Goodhead nodded her head.

"You're late James…"Goodhead said, Bond looked at his watch and frowned.

"How far is the meeting place?" Bond asked, Good head shook her head and pointed.

"Not far, you can see it from here, we'll be there in no time." Goodhead explained.

"Good ,lets hope I can get some information from her."


	7. Dinner and A Spy

Chapter Seven

Dinner and a Spy

Bond entered the restaurant, where he was to meet the 'reliable source', coolly as if he hadn't just made a visit to the hotel. Like always he looked around to be cautious, it was evident that the mole was on top of Bond. The amount of security at the hotel was uncommon and was only there to intercept Bond or the C.I.A.. What Bond wasn't sure of was whether or not, whoever the mole was, knew he was part of the British secret service. Bond didn't know what to look for, but Goodhead explained to him that the contact would find him once he sat down at a table, so Bond wasted no time in finding a suitable spot that faced the entrance and the kitchen entrance, this way he could be aware of everyone who came in or out. Bond sat at the table pretending to review the menu. He didn't suspect anyone quite yet as a mole, he made the assumption that it was an outside force spying on him, he looked around again to see if he noticed anyone from outside or before, but no matter who he saw they weren't of any importance. He would have to wait, eventually everyone makes a mistake and Bond would be there to catch it. Bond was also anxious to meet this Julio Acosta as soon as possible, whoever he was he was dangerous because he had pulled a lot of strings already to have Bond killed. The train bombing was extreme not subtle at all, for him to pull such a dangerous move off and not even be suspected or suffer any consequences from it meant that he had a lot of power and sense, he knew who to use and just how to use them. Julio may also give clues to the identity of the mole, Bond would have to strategically pull the mole into view. He knew for certain it wasn't Goodhead, mainly because she had also almost been killed, he wasn't sure yet, whoever they were they were tricky.

Bond also wondered how much MI6 really knew, when M had briefed him he didn't seem to be in the light on the situation, and then neither did the C.I.A, he didn't understand why both MI6 and the C.I.A. would be so adamant on capturing a man who they absolutely nothing about. It wasn't logical, he felt set up as if someone wanted him to take this mission. Bond put the menu down and a woman was standing over the chair. Bond raised his eyebrows as she sat down, even for Bond this woman was beautiful beyond imagination, Bond was taken by surprise at her beauty and for could even be called vulnerable but Bond caught his composure when she sat down and picked up a menu. Bond watched her moments and notice that her body moved with such grace, she was like a silk cloth billowing in the wind. A waiter came along quickly and waited by the table for their order, Bond waited for her to order but from behind her menu she spoke.

"I'm not ready, order." She said, Bond pulled his chair closer to the table.

"Vodka martini, shaken not stirred." Bond ordered, the waiter nodded and looked at the woman who silently continued looking at the menu, the wait was awkward and long but finally she gave her order.

"Red wine." She said simply. The waiter slightly bowed and walked off. Another awkward silence followed and Bond was the first to speak.

"What is it that you want to tell me?" Bond asked, for the first time the woman looked into his eyes and Bond felt something he hadn't felt in years, not since he had met-

"Its up to you to ask the questions." The woman said, Bond nodded.

"Well lets start off with your name." Bond suggested.

"Paris…" She simply answered. "…and you?" she asked.

"Stock, Jim Stock." Bond answered untruthfully, she nodded.

"Well Mr. Stock…" Paris started. "…what do you want to know?" she asked. Bond leaned a bit closer.

"I want to know why Julio Acosta is so dangerous." Bond asked. Paris didn't flinch.

"Because he's rich and he knows how to evade different governments." Paris answered.

"How do you mean?" Bond asked.

"I don't know for sure, and I rather not give you false information…" Paris started. "…but I've heard him talking about doing different things." Paris revealed.

"Like?"

"Like being rid of the American and British governments." Paris said.

"That's a job for a policeman how come you involved the C.I.A.?" Bond asked.

"Because a police officer won't stop Julio, he's too rich, too dangerous." Paris answered.

"What do you suppose that I can do to help you if you can't be specific? Bond continued.

"I'm sure you can do an investigation of some sort…" Paris explained. "…you spies have ways that normal people do not, I'm sure you can dig something up." Paris said.

"There's not much I can do without knowing anything about Acosta." Bond lied.

"Well I can guarantee you that whatever he's doing its starting in the Caribbean." She confessed.

"What do you expect is happening?" Bond asked. Paris shrugged, over her shoulder the waiter reappeared and gave them their wine and disappeared back into the restaurant.

"I don't know, but I wouldn't have contacted the C.I.A. if I didn't think it was important, I'm not a stupid woman." Paris said.

"No, no I wouldn't even suggest that." Bond said.

"He proved it with the train bombing this morning." Paris said before another sip.

"What do you know about that?" Bond asked trying not to seem suspicious.

"I know that a train blew up this morning and the authorities are trying not to reveal there was a bomb aboard." Paris said.

"How do you know there was a bomb, I heard it had derailed." Bond played devil's advocate to see how much she knew.

"I heard it from one of the officers, plus an explosion like that doesn't come from a mere derailing." Paris said.

"Well there was a bomb, but it could have been from anyone." Bond shrugged.

"I doubt it, too coincidental, especially the fact that you were on the train." Paris said.

"How did you know that? Bond asked.

"I heard him talking about it today, he said there was a British secret service agent and a C.I.A. agent on the train and there bodies weren't found…" She took another sip. "…I'm assuming that one of those bodies that weren't found is yours." Paris finished.

"You would be correct." Bond answered.

"Is your C.I.A. agent friend ok to…?" Paris asked. "…or did he not make it?" Paris continued.

"No they're fine." Bond cautiously didn't reveal that the C.I.A. agent was actually Goodhead and a woman.

"Good." Paris said, Bond took note at her emotion she seemed anxious to leave, Bond also felt that she was telling the truth about what she knew, she looked uncomfortable as if she were afraid someone was to come in and do something to her. Bond began to feel the same anxiety; there wouldn't be much he could do to protect her here, without giving away what cover he had left. He looked around again, he hadn't felt so paranoid before and not for himself but for her, there was something so familiar about her something he had his finger on but didn't want to admit it.

"Well I know all I need to know for now…" Bond started. "…should I take you back to your hotel, or am I to assume that you stay in Acosta's estate?" bond asked.

"Julio and I are separated, whatever contact I have with him its for the sheer purpose to deliver the information to you." Paris said.

"And the C.I.A. thanks you for that, so I'll take you back to your hotel." Bond said and the two of them got up and left the restaurant.

Outside Bond caught a cab for the two of them and without saying it, it was obvious that Bond somewhat agreed to be Paris' bodyguard.

"How do you enjoy your job Mr. Stock?" Paris asked. Bond thought for a moment.

"It has its rewards, I wouldn't do it if I didn't get some kind of kick out of it." Bond said. Paris nodded.

"But you can never stop." Paris asked, she said it with such conviction that it was clear to Bond that she meant something deeper.

"What do you mean?" Bond asked.

"I mean sometimes people have to stop and look at their lives to keep from going out of their minds, sometimes you have to just stop and let the worlds move around you." Paris explained. Again Bond thought before speaking.

"That's what I ensure for other people, their ability to 'stop' is compromised everyday, I'm one of the people who gives them back their right." Bond answered.

"At the sacrifice to your own right?" Paris asked.

"If that is what's needed then yes." Bond answered.

"Is that fair?" Paris asked.

"It's not about what's fair." Bond rebutted, there was a moment of victorious silence from Paris before she said:

"Then why do your job?" The cab stopped in front of a hotel, Paris and Bond quickly exited and instead of going up to her room Bond walked her to the hotel entrance and said his goodbyes, had it been any other woman he would have but there was something about this 'Paris' and he didn't know what exactly

it was, so in silence he left her, begging his mind to focus on the mission.


	8. An Afternoon of Pure Madness

Chapter Eight

An Afternoon of Pure Madness.

The next day didn't prove to be any quieter than the previous; Bond woke up in his hotel room with a call from M.

"Q is sure he can identify where the Bomb came from, from what was left of it." M explained. Bond rolled over in his bed and then sat up.

"Go on." Bond said, there was a click on the phone that he was sure M had missed, but I meant Moneypenny was listening.

"I'm afraid it complicates matters more…" M stated. "…Q insists that the bomb has the characteristics of a bomb created by a man named Petrovski." M explained.

"Do we have anything on him?" Bond asked.

"Yes, he's notorious, builds bombs for the super rich terrorist, however he doesn't operate alone." M said.

"What do you mean?" Bond asked.

"Usually the person asking for the bombs needs more than one at different times so he usually stays in the company of the person he's working for. M explained.

"Acosta." Bond said.

"Exactly, we believe that Petrovski is staying on Acosta's estate, we want you to try and get information out of him when you win the stock car race today. You are to use extreme caution you mustn't let Acosta know that you are apart of the investigation." M said.

"I see." Bond answered.

"Do you want to report what the contact relayed?" M asked. Bond frowned he knew that Paris' information the night before wouldn't be enough for M.

"I rather not say, until I can confirm most of it…" Bond lied. "…you'll know what's true what's not when I do." Bond said, M grunted.

"Get cracking Bond…" M said. "…and good luck."

Bond hung up the phone and got out of the bed and got dressed, he decided he would have to skip breakfast and find Goodhead before heading out, she had all the things he needed. As Bond opened the door Goodhead was knocking.

"Good morning James." She greeted. Bond smiled and invited her inside.

"Good morning Ms. Goodhead…" Bond responded. "…how was your night?" Bond asked.

"Uneventful…" Goodhead confessed. "…what about you, did you manage to get any information from the contact?" Goodhead asked.

"Nothing of importance for now." Bond said trying to shake off the subject.

"Did M tell you about Petrovski?" Goodhead asked.

"Yes, he wants me to question him." Bond said.

"Here's here!" Goodhead asked.

"There's a possibility." Bond answered shortly.

"Seems careless of Acosta, if he knows he's being investigated why would he have him here with him?" Goodhead asked.

"Well you can be certain that he'll be under tight security…" Bond sighed. "…do you have those items from Q?" Bond asked. Good head nodded and she pulled an Attaché case from seemingly nowhere.

"Yeas I do…"she went inside and pulled out several laminated cards. "…the suit is in my car, I'll be taking you to the race." Goodhead explained, Bond smiled.

"How, kind a chaperon." Bond said. Good head ignored his comment.

"Q also wanted me to give you this…" She handed him a small device in the shape of an eardrum. "..its a communicator, it allows you to speak directly to M on a frequency." Goodhead explained.

"Why would I need this..?" Bond asked. "…I talk to M enough." Bond mumbled.

"Well just in case, Q said he hadn't field tested it…" Bond began to put the communicator in his ear. "…but he says he's upgraded it from the prototypes, he's got the exploding bug out." Bond quickly took the device out of his ear.

"To hell with that." Bond said. Goodhead smirked.

"I'm sure it's perfectly safe, you may want to use his when investigating Acosta." Goodhead explained. Bond nodded.

"How long until the race?" Bond asked, Goodhead got up and picked up here attaché case with her.

"Not long at all, we should get going." She said, Bond wasted no time and left.

Acosta's estate was far larger than Bond had seen the day before, when the Goodhead's car entered the gate Bond realized that the estate took up the rest of the city from there on, it was even a somewhat astonishing to Bond, the building that he 'lived in' was bigger than the three hotels and restaurant he had visited the previous day, it was in fact much larger. Acosta's estate boasted six Olympic size pools, a tennis court, a shooting range and an aquarium bigger than most in surrounding cities amongst other things. Bond knew that it was too huge to investigate the entire thing in one day. The race was going to be held in his country side which was converted into an unpaved short track, the track wasn't even a small fraction of the rest of Acosta's estate, and Bond would take the opportunity to check out what he could as he raced. Bond took note of the other racers none of them looked familiar but Bond felt that at least one of them wasn't a racer and was here to ensure that Bond didn't finish the race in first place, or finish it at all. Bond could see Gonzales already in his suit walking around and conversing, at the gate Bond stepped out of the car and Morales was there.

"It's good to see you Mr. Bond; you'll be pleased to know everything is in order." Morales explained, Bond nodded looking beyond Morales.

"Good…" Bond answered. "…is there a place I can change?" Bond asked. Morales nodded, he pointed into Acosta's estate.

"There's a restroom in there you can change in, all you need is your racers I.D." Morales explained, Bond thanked him before Morales wish him luck and safety and they parted ways. At the front door, a large bodyguard who looked triple Bond's size promptly asked for Bond's I.D., Bond handed it over and the man inspected it, he looked at the I.D. then at Bond and back at the I.D. He grunted and let Bond by. Bond took the time and looked at the name and memorized it. Bond looked around the inside, it was strangely quiet and he felt something was up, he turned the corners quietly and searched the walls for cracks, hidden passages, different things, he found nothing as he searched around. These were the type of people that got to Bond the most, Bond was sure that Acosta was hiding something but he couldn't find anything. It was more than likely that Acosta was snide and confident, always a pain in the ass. Bond snooped around more listening at doors, checking ventilation shafts, abandoned corridors, everything he thought would seem suspicious or possibly have a double purpose, but he found nothing initially, Bond found the restroom and changed into the stock car racer's outfit, he put his normal suit and bow tie in the plastic covering and began back to the car, however when he was going back he found a picture that seemed suspicious, he looked at the picture up and down and placed his ear to eat and heard what he perceived to be machinery, Bond put his hands behind the picture and just as the picture began to move a guard turned the corner, Bond put the picture back and quickly made his way back outside. Outside the racers were doing their final pleasantries before the race, Bond joined in briefly pretending that he knew people and sparking up slight conversations, before he knew it the race was beginning. Bond looked at all the racers again he took note and then he got into the car.

"Remember that it's imperative that you win this race Bond." M said, Bond looked around for a moment before recalling the communicator in his ear, Bond looked around his car, he hadn't officially done stock car racing before but he figured that he knew that mechanics of it.

"Don't worry sir; this should be a piece of cake." Bond said. The roar of the engines came up and Bond started his car, the suspense of the cars just waiting to go was building up, second after second Bond was ready to accelerate and tear down the track. The race lights stayed on red, In his mind Paris appeared, she was beautiful, she was sophisticated, and like all of Bond's women had no clue on what was happening around her, but there was something about her that made her different, from someone like Goodhead, she was just so much more…helpless.

The red light went to the middle red light, Bond gripped the steering wheel and waited, then it went to yellow, the roar of the cars got louder more vicious, this was already different from racing in a normal car, the competition was very real, it was all a fight…

Green.

Bond's car darted out and almost fishtailed immediately, he was luck enough to pull the car back into position and raced down the track, the other cars were so close to him Bond couldn't see the track, he had to for now just follow the leading cars. The dirt kicked up intensely and the ground under Bond shook as if the earth was opening up under him, the steering wheel jerked around as if on its own wheel. Bond was instantly frustrated, he didn't realize it was this chaotic, not that he wasn't used to chaos but this was so fast and it was so important that he win, Bond was worried, but there wasn't a doubt in his mind that he would lose.

The track winded around the beach for a good while, there were no bars so the track became a cliff at this point, and aside from the obvious drop off it was impossible to tell the track from off road, and the debris around the track was easily kicked up onto the track causing Bond's car to jerk around without much he could do to control it, his eyes darted from side to side trying to find a gap in the other racers, but he couldn't see anything, all there was was dirt and the cars were jammed together, Bond looked into his rear view mirror to see the cars behind him, but to his surprise there was no one behind him, he was in last place, completely aggravated, he pressed the brake and fell back a bit and then accelerated again, with his distance from the other cars Bond could clearly see a way beyond the cars, he sped up to that point but another car quickly closed in his space, so Bond did the only thing he thought he could do, he smashed into the car. The car shook and swerved a bit but didn't fall off track, so Bond did it again, this time when the car swerved it his the car beside it and the two cars trying to avoid each other ended up falling behind, Bond quickly moved into the spot and served his car left and hit the car next to him.

"What the hell are you doing James?" Gonzales' voice shouted in Bond's ear, Bond pulled off from the car.

"Sorry…" Bond responded. "…I thought M was on this line." Bond asked.

"We're using a universal frequency right now." M answered calmly. Bond swerved the car to the right seeing that the cars up ahead were making a right turn, Bond's car fishtailed a bit again and he had to fight to gain control of his out of control car and he gritted his teeth doing it.

"Damn…!" Bond spat. "…this is ridiculous!" Bond complained.

"It's not your average racing…." Gonzales understated, as he turned the corner. "…you are not doing badly for a beginner Mr. Bond." Gonzales praised, bond thought for a moment waiting for the chaos to subside a bit.

"Thank you..." Bond groaned. "…I've had some practice." Bond finished.

The trees abruptly closed in on the track and it became a narrow pathway and only the cars could only race one behind another.

"Acosta's watching the entire race?" Bond asked.

"Yes sir." Gonzales answered.

"Then I guess I shouldn't do anything tricky…" Bond said."…I'm not supposed to draw attention to myself." Bond said. M's grumpy voiced groaned in his ear.

"Bond you are to do anything you need to win that damn race!" M answered, Bond nodded.

"You said it not me M." Bond said. The narrow road started to widen out and the trees were rarifying quickly, Bond watched for some type of pattern in the trees, he couldn't make out one, but he felt there was no other choice.

Bond swung his car into the trees and maneuvered as best as he could, in fact he found it easier maneuvering on the grass than on the dirt path, he kept the car around the trees in his makeshift shortcut. The branches slapped and beat against the car violently; Bond occasionally ducked his head in reflex. Up ahead he could see the dirt road, so he accelerated.

"Mr. Bond I'm going to pull into second place and try to keep the other racers behind you." Gonzales suggested, bond nodded in his car.

"That sounds like a good idea, I'm about to pull back on the road." Bond announced, he tore back onto the dirt road and spun around chaotically as he struggled for control of the car and when he regained it he continued tearing down the track. Bond looked into his rearview mirror and saw a car gaining on him.

"Is that you in car twenty-two?" Bond asked.

"Yes Mr. Bond." Gonzales answered.

The cars came around the first lap, with Bond leading and Gonzales close behind him, the other racer very close to Gonzales, Bond looked around he recognized the track now no surprises, the beach would be coming up soon, he looked in the rear view mirror.

"Gonzales watch your tail number nineteen is coming up close." Bond warned, he instantly had a bad feeling about number nineteen, when he looked into the mirror again he saw number nineteen careen into Gonzales' car. Bond saw the car spin and swerve and the other cars desperately try to avoid crashing into him.

"SHIT!" Gonzales yelled. Bond alternated his eyes from the rear view mirror to the road.

"Gonzales!" Bond yelled, he turned the car around the corner, static filled his ears for a moment.

"Yes Mr. Bond I'm alright." Gonzales answered, Bond sighed in relief, and he looked into the rearview mirror and saw car number nineteen heading his way.

"M is Goodhead on this frequency?" Bond asked. There was pause.

"She should be." M answered.

"Goodhead, come in…" Bond said urgently. "…I repeat Goodhead come in." There was a long silence and the only thing Bond could hear was the sound of his car and number nineteen coming up on him. The other car moved with a pace that seemed dangerous Bond could tell this racer was doing his best to stop Bond.

"Go ahead James." Goodhead called over the cheering in the main section of the estate.

"I need you to look up the information on driver nineteen." Bond said, Goodhead said something to someone else and then she came back to James.

"One moment." Goodhead said.

Car number nineteen came up right next to Bond and then careened into his side with terrible force, Bond kept his car on the track and tried to see the driver in the car as he went to slam against him again, Bond this time did the same and the two cars slammed against one another. For a moment Bond's car lifted off the ground and came back down with a loud thud,

"I think someone is trying to kill me M." Bond said.

"What else is new 007?" M answered sarcastically.

"James…?" Goodhead called.

"Yes Goodhead, who is he?" Bond asked as the cars slammed against each other again.

"There is no racer for car nineteen registered." Goodhead explained.

"How abnormal is that Gonzales?" Bond asked.

"Very…" Gonzales answered. "…all racers have to be registered." Bond groaned. The road became a narrow path again, and Bond managed to pull ahead of car nineteen; however that didn't stop the driver from pounding the back of his car. Bond hit his brake softly and the car stopped for a moment causing car nineteen to swerve out the way and almost into the trees, but the racer caught himself and was back onto the road, Bond missed the shortcut he had taken in the previous lap and had to continue on the narrow path that twisted right causing the track to lift off the road a little.

"Mr. Bond…?" Gonzales called.

"Go ahead." Bond answered.

"…I'm trying to tail car number nineteen, can you stall him a bit." Gonzales asked.

"I'll try." As bond said that car nineteen smashed into his car again and Bond lost control his car spun around and all he could see was nineteen take the lead.

"Bond, you must regain the lead!" M yelled.

"Mr. Bond another car is gaining on you!" Gonzales yelled. Bond was trying to steer his car forward and then accelerate to gain on the car in the lead but his car continued to spin in a dizzying fury, and as it spun he heard a sound he didn't want to hear. Another car passed him, Bond slammed his foot on the brake and the car screeched in retaliation, and finally stopped. Bond put the car in reverse and piloted the car in the right direction and then sped forward, in his rearview mirror he saw Gonzales catching up with him, Bond accelerated as fast as he could and so did Gonzales. Finally the narrow way gave up space and Bond forcefully pulled his car forward. In front of him the second car to pass him, which was car number eight, battling to get in front of car nineteen, in a matter of seconds car number eight was in first place and nineteen was blocking Bond from passing.

The three cars entered the last lap in the same order, Bond couldn't get past nineteen every turn he made nineteen made a second later and eventually braked kicking up so much dirt that he couldn't see anything, but Bond had been paying attention to the track and knew to pull left and ended up side by side with car number nineteen. Again the car pounded into Bond's side, but this time it was even more dangerous, Bond was dangerously close to falling off the edge of the track and onto the beach. Bond did all he could to stay on track but then he had an idea.

"How imperative is that this racer not be harmed M?" Bond asked.

"It's not at all…" M answered. "…so long as you don't make it obvious that what you're doing is intentional." M answered quickly as if he anticipated the question. Bond swerved his car into the other and the battle back and forwards that way, Bond knew that once they reached the narrow way that there would be little he could do to stop car nineteen and even less he could do to catch up to the car in the lead. Bond pulled away from the car and waited for the car to swerve in his direction, the road was going back to the narrow way and he knew there was precious little time. Car nineteen darted towards Bond and Bond quickly slammed his foot on the brake and his car heinously, fell backwards and car nineteen drove right off the edge of the track.

"Good god Bond..!" M yelled. "…I didn't say you could kill him!" M continued.

"I wasn't aware you could see what's was going on." Bond said.

"I'm feeding him an image." Goodhead explained.

"Goodhead, is there a boardwalk on the beach that leads back to Acosta's estate?" Bond asked.

"Yes there is." Goodhead answered.

"Good." Bond answered and without any other thought he drove off the track as well.

"Good god 007!" M yelled.

"James!" Goodhead called with fear.

"Mr. Bond!" Gonzales screamed.

The car crashed down towards the beach, violently hitting the rocks and such that littered the non path, Bond clutched the steering wheel trying to keep his body from jerking out of place as he fell towards the sand. The entire fall was less than fifteen seconds, but felt like hours and when he hit the sand he didn't take a moment to get his bearing together, he just accelerated. The sand didn't make any better road then the dirt but luckily for Bond it didn't make any worse road, he drove along the beach without interference.

"What the hell are you doing Bond?" M yelled, Bond was beginning to regret Q's newest device.

"I'm turning this race into a walk on the beach." Bond said, he crazily drove on the beach without hesitation, suddenly a problem arose.

"Goodhead?" Bond called.

"Yes?" Goodhead.

"Does the boardwalk lead back to the road?" Bond asked. Bond could hear Goodhead moving around, trying to find a way to know. After a long moment she came back.

"I don't know…" Bond Goodhead. "…but I do know that the track goes around Acosta's estate so it would only make sense for the boardwalk to at one point lead to the track." Goodhead concluded. Bond frowned.

"I hope so." He mumbled to himself, in front of him the boardwalk suddenly appeared, bond made a quick left turn, leading up to the boardwalk was a wooden ramp, instantly Bond concluded that there was little chance that the rickety looking ramp could deal with the weight of the car. But he didn't another choice so he drove as quickly as he could up the ramp, indeed the ramp creaked and made all types of unstable sounds, Bond focused only on the distance from where he was and the actual boardwalk. He managed to get up on the boardwalk and drove right, he estimated where the track would be, remembering which way he went, plus to his right there were trees which probably meant that the track must have been that way, he drove and as e did he took the time to be impressed with the amount of space Acosta had, the boardwalk was huge in fact it seemed to take up the entire coast line, there were shops and buildings that ornamented the boardwalk and Bond had no doubt that Acosta owned them all. In the distance Bond was sure he could hear the cars on the track, as far as he could see, there was a pathway behind the shops, so he pulled behind them and to his surprise there was the track, however he couldn't get to it, there were too many trees in the way, up ahead the path was gone, a slab of concrete, but there was also an incline right before it, Bond didn't want to assume the risk of slowing down, so he had to be exactly right on the timing of his next left turn onto the incline, Bond knew that this was the end of race, everything was depending on making this turn at the right time, he usually didn't count down or try and do math equations to figure out distance and time, wind calculations to determine when exactly he should turn, Bond just did it, it was matter of do or don't. Bond made the turn and the car lifted up on the incline and shot through the air, it went over a small patch of dirt and then the car landed with a terrible crash and Bond swerved into the right position and kept going, he looked into the rearview mirror and saw a car behind him and behind that car was Gonzales.

"Welcome back Mr. Bond…." Gonzales said. Up ahead Bond could see the finish line, within seconds he had passed it.

"…and congratulations." Gonzales finished.

"Thank you…" Bond said. "…I've won a lunch with the mystery man."

007 

Winning the race was only the beginning, Bond now had to change and get ready to meet Julio Acosta, M hadn't given him the authority to question Acosta out right, he still had to remain under cover and get whatever information out of Acosta that he could without being revealed. Bond would have to start with the basics and draw some conclusions to what he could be doing. Number one was finding out what Acosta had his hands in, what business did he own? What businesses did he help finance? Imports? Exports? Powerful people he associated with, anything that could link him to Petrovski, getting him to admit he was in the Caribbean when the C.I.A. agent was killed, and the hardest was to get him to admit his political beliefs, Bond's disguise as a race car driver didn't lend much to prying into Acosta's private life and beliefs.

Bond accepted congratulations briefly before disappearing and changing into a suit, when he came back there was a crowd gathered in the main area, Bond approached Goodhead and Morales.

"It's Acosta, he came out looking for you Mr. Lind." Goodhead explained, Morales looked around.

"Where did Gonzales go?" He asked.

"Back to the hotel, I think he went to contact Leiter." Bond explained, he walked by Morales and into the crowd. When Bond penetrated the outer layer of people a hush came over them standing in the center was a man, very light skinned, dark eye bowed and sporting a classy haircut was who Bond assumed to be Julio Acosta. The man walked up to Bond with a smile and shook hands with him.

"Congratulations Mr. Lind…" The man said. "…My estate has never seen such driving before." Acosta continued.

"Anything to win Mr. Acosta." Bond said, Julio smiled a large smiled and looked around at the people watching, there was a momentary silence and then they began to laugh.

"Please Mr. Lind call me Julio…" Acosta said graciously. "…as a fellow racer I must say a driver of your caliber deserves only the most respect." Acosta continued.

"Well thank you it was nothing…" Bond said. "…How's the racer in car nineteen?" Bond asked, for a moment Acosta's face became very serious, a great disappointment glazed his eyes and as soon as it came it was gone.

"I'm sure he'll be dealt with in the best possible fashion." Acosta answered, he smiled again and gestured to the entrance of his estate.

"Good." Bond answered.

"Now come in join me for lunch."

It was entirely possible that Acosta's estate was larger on the inside than it was on the outside, somehow Bond had managed to overlook the series of turns and doorways that lead to the main eating area. The room was large and had a relatively large table, most likely used to entertain many guess, to Bond's surprise there was no one joining the two of them for lunch it was just Acosta and Bond.

"So tell me Mr. Lind, what got you into racing?" Acosta asked.

"Nothing really, I just wanted a hobby." Bond answered. Acosta chuckled a bit.

"Mr. Lind when people want a hobby, they start stamp collecting, stock car racing is something else." Acosta said, Bond nodded.

"Sometimes you want to be faster than you own life." Bond answered, Acosta smiled as if he anticipated the answer.

"Are you saying you live a fast life Mr. Lind?" Acosta asked, Bond shook his head after sipping a bit of wine.

"No, but if my life were ever to speed up I could be sure that I would be ahead of it." Bond answered. Acosta took a bite of food.

"So Mr. Lind…" Acosta started. "…How do you feel?" Acosta asked.

"Relieved…" Bond answered. "…that race was particularly dangerous." Bond added.

"I take it you noticed the change in the course." Acosta asked, bond didn't show any distress at all, he remained calm.

"Quite a nasty thing to add in there." Bond bluffed.

"Yes well I like to keep the racers on there toes…" Acosta looked Bond right into his eyes. "…Did you enjoy the smaller track?" Acosta asked, Bond noticed the twitch in Acosta's face as he asked him the question.

"Shorter…?" Bond asked. "…it felt longer to me." He concluded, for a second Acosta watch Bond with malice, it was clear that the two of them were trying to outwit one another, however Bond felt he had the slight advantage, being with Acosta this long revealed that he was too smug, but very smart, Bond could see the confidence in Acosta's eyes, it wasn't as if he was cocky but reassured, Acosta had a lot he was hiding and he was doing so cleverly that he thought Bond would never notice.

"Indeed Mr. Lind, it was shorter…" Acosta confessed. "…and with that shortcut you took I'm sure it was even shorter." Acosta added.

"Well, I love to win, no matter the cost." Bond answered.

"That can be very dangerous though…" Acosta said. "…wouldn't it be safer sometimes to just back down?" Acosta asked.

"I've learned in my experience that backing down is very overrated…" Bond started. "..if I backed out of a race their wouldn't be any glory." Bond answered.

"Yes Mr. Lind…" Acosta rebutted. "…but if you have to choose between your life and your profession which would you choose?" Acosta challenged. Bond stared at Acosta for a moment pretending to be considering the question.

"My Profession is my life." Bond answered, Acosta sighed it seemed more out of frustration rather than.

"Then I hope you don't have any regrets." Acosta said.

"I never do." A bell rang and Acosta smiled before standing up and pressing the button on the intercom, Bond failed to realize was behind Acosta's seat, and asked what was wrong. The voice cordially answered that there was press downstairs waiting to see him Acosta turned around and Bond spoke first.

"It's alright; you're a very busy man." Bond said.

"I do apologize, but you being the great racer that you are…" Acosta started. "…I'm sure we will meet again." Acosta finished, Bond stood up.

"Can I use your restroom?" Bond asked, Acosta nodded.

"Of course, please Mr. Lind, make yourself at home." Acosta said, and he stepped out Bond close behind him until they parted ways.

"Did you hear all of that?" Bond asked.

"Yes Bond…" M said. "…and it was the most useless conversation I've ever heard." M grumpily ended.

"Maybe to you, however it revealed a lot to me." Bond said.

"Such as 007…?" M started. "…reveal what your expertise in detection has shown you." M asked.

"He's confident…" Bond answered. "…for someone under investigation by the American C.I.A., Acosta doesn't seem to dwell on it at all." Bond said.

"That doesn't condemn him in any way, shape or form 007" M continued.

"No, but it means one of two things." Bond answered.

"What is that 007?" M asked. Bond Turned a corner and looked for a guard.

"Either one: he's innocent, or two:…" Bond paused. "…whatever he's hiding it right under our noses." Bond concluded.

007 

Meanwhile at the same time Morales returned and made his way to Goodhead, he whispered into her ear, and her eyes widened, and without another wasted second, they got Gonzales and left.

007 

Bond stood in front of the picture he had tried to investigate earlier.

"I found something interesting." Bond said as he lifted up the painting. Behind the painting was a door as Bond had suspected, it was easily opened and Bond stepped inside. The communicator in his ear crackled and then went completely silent, Bond didn't bother to go back outside and alert M of the interference. There was a path, for about two meters before a series of steps leading down, winded down to a new place all together. The new place was completely white, Bond instantly distinguished it as a laboratory, Bond cautiously came to the end of the steps and looked around. Though he suspected of Acosta of something he couldn't understand why he would need a laboratory under his estate. Bond looked at some sheets on a desk and thought about taking them, but from the looks of it they would be easily missed, he looked it over and saw a mess of scientific codes and other things he couldn't understand. On the far side of the room there was a series of large plastic containers, Bond made his way to the containers quickly, he could tell there was something supposed to be in them but they were all empty. They looked like something you'd keep something a live in, like an incubator or a-

A sound o the opposite end of the large room startled Bond and he ducked behind a desk, he watched as two men in white suits walked towards him. The taller of them men was holding a glass dish, he placed it on the table.

"If we don't get more by the end of the week, the shipments will be delayed." The man said, the other man nodded and they went back the way they came. When Bond was sure they were out of sight, he stood up and walked towards the dish, bond could see that inside the dish was a white substance, he tried to identify it by sight alone at first but he couldn't, he leaned over to touch it, just as his hand was about to touch it the door in which the two men had come from opened up again, however this time a group of men appeared, Bond realized that it wasn't a good idea to stay any longer, he quickly ran over to and up the steps, back to the door and cautiously back into the hallway.

"007 WHERE ARE YOU!" M yelled in Bond's ear.

"Sorry, I had to go underground…" Bond explained. "…you won't believe what I found."

"It doesn't matter Bond you have to go pick up the informant." M ordered, from the way M was talking Bond could tell something had happened.

"What's going on?" Bond asked.

"Apparently some suspicious men have been spotted around her hotel." M explained.

"I should go get her then." Bond said.

"Yes 007 she's waiting for you at the local bus station take her back to your hotel, I'll contact you later with more orders." M concluded.

Without any incident Bond left Acosta's estate, outside Acosta was still talking to various people, it was ever so clear that Acosta was like a celebrity, there were people who adored him, loved him and people who would do anything for him, it was just a matter of finding those people. Bond caught another cab and went to the bus station to pick Paris up and take her to the safety and comfort of his hotel room.


	9. Hotel issues 2

Chapter Nine

Hotel Issues #2

As M had said Paris was indeed waiting for Bond at the local bus station, Bond was surprised to see that she had dressed up, she wore a elegant dress that draped the floor, he elegance seemed to be the most unsafe thing to flaunt, being that it brought attention to herself but nevertheless Bond was impressed even more with her than he was the night before, Bond was suspicious that he might have been followed from Acosta's mansion but after a careful and discreet search for cars or people following him, he came up with nothing, however to be sure he called an identical cab along and issued the one he was in to go Paris' hotel while he and Paris made a unseen getaway in the second cab.

Though she tried too hard to hide it, it was clear to Bond that Paris that she was relieved to see him, when he had approached the bus station she looked very nervous, and when he exited the cab the tension seemed to be relieved. Inside the cab she said nothing, and Bond found that a tad bit amusing.

"Did you have a good night's rest?" Bond asked eventually. Paris did her best to give him a cold glare but fell very short of seeming truly upset.

"I don't see how that is any of your business Mr. Stock." She answered, for a moment the Name threw him off he wasn't used to keeping on alias' for so long

"Just curious…" Bond answered. "…I did some investigating at Acosta's estate." Bond revealed.

"You didn't let him see you did you!" She asked, suddenly her aloof carefree attitude dissolved and she seemed terrified by the idea that her plan to backstab Acosta with the C.I.A. had been found out.

"Well in fact we had lunch together." Bond answered, Paris seemed too afraid to talk and she managed to cough out a statement.

"I never thought the C.I.A. would be so reckless."

"However I used an alias, as far as Acosta knows the British secret service hasn't even been thought of in the investigation." Bond explained, at that Paris seemed to relax again.

"Did you find anything that would lead to him being arrested?" Paris asked, Bond shook his head.

"I'm afraid not…" Bond said. "…I personally though feel that there is something more than Acosta's letting on to and it will only be a matter of time before he makes a mistake and reveals it." Bond said.

"I wouldn't be to sure with this idea of waiting for him to make a mistake…" Paris complained. "…he's a very careful man." She concluded.

"Too careful in my opinion…" Bond added. "…that is why I know he will slip up." Bond explained. Paris nodded and another long silence came over the cab, it lasted until they reached Bond's hotel. The Hotel was shaped interestingly, it somewhat resembled the letter A, and on both slanted sides there were long rows of windows that we're on the fifth, tenth, fifteenth and twentieth floors, the window were the size of each floor. Bond graciously paid the driver and cautiously took Paris to his room.

When Bond led her into his room she seemed to be agitated, Bond explained that this was the safest place he could take her. She acknowledged him slightly with a barely visible nod and sat down at the desk.

"Yesterday you asked me about my profession…"Bond started. "…What about yours?" Bond asked, for a moment Paris seemed hesitant to answer Bond's question.

"I don't work…" she said, but she was already starting to find Bond predictable and knew that he wanted to know more. "…I met Julio when I was younger, during my last year of law school in fact, I've never needed a job." She explained.

"Are you two married?" For some reason when Bond asked this he felt uncomfortable, the first mention of marriage brought him back to Teresa, when he had been married. At one point Bond never considered himself to be able to become married, one woman seemed as absurd as one drink at a bar, but Teresa was different, he at first had been reluctant to marry her but over time she seemed to be more of a different person, she was brave, smart, she seemed to remind Bond of himself, but where they differed was obvious she had the ability to admit she wanted to be loved while Bond-

"No, he doesn't believe in marriage…" Paris interrupted Bond's though process. "…only loyalty." She explained.

"So your willing to leave this happy good life...?" Bond asked. "…what will you do when the money is gone?"

"Acosta is smart in some things, however he trust women too much…" Paris explained. "…I have a considerable nest egg saved up." She concluded.

"Do you have any idea what he might be doing?" Bond asked, tot his question he was still rather clueless about.

"I don't know…" Paris truthfully answered. "…but whatever it is I can guarantee the bulk of it is set up in the Caribbean." She revealed.

"Have you been down there with him before?" Bond continued asking.

"Yes, but never to his place of business…" She laughed. "…I always thought he might have been cheating on me." Paris said, Bond was clearly uninterested in that part of the situation, for the time being, he was trying to narrow down what could be going on.

"Do you know anyone he associates with regularly?" Bond asked, Paris again shook her head.

"No one, I did investigating of my own Mr. Stock…" Paris explained. "…never before has he kept close ties with anyone, except recently he's been contacting a man named Petrovski a lot." She mentioned, the sound of his name made Bond perk up just a bit.

"Do you know who this Petrovski is?" Bond asked as if he hadn't already known.

"No, I'm not quite sure…" Paris trailed off. Bond considered it better that she didn't know who he was, that we she served no direct threat to Acosta and Bond wouldn't have to worry about protecting her the entire time he investigated. "…Mr. Stock I feel tired." Paris said. Bond didn't think about her statement too much.

"I suppose you could lie down and rest for the time being." Bond said rather absent mindedly, he crossed over to the phone and checked it, then to the picture in the room and did the same. Paris sat on the bed for a moment and then lied down, she didn't talk, and she moaned a little and then seemed to swoon.

"No, I don't feel well…" She complained, Bond looked at her, her voice trailed off and her eyes glazed over. "…something's wrong." She concluded in a groggy stupor, seeing that she was beyond right, Bond rushed over to Paris and grabbed her.

"Did anyone give you anything to drink today?" Bond asked alarmed, her eyes were fading and she was talking jumble of words.

"I drank some wine in my room earlier." she managed to get out.

"Is there anyone here?" Bond asked into his communicator.

"Yes Mr. Bond." Gonzales answered.

"I'm here." Morales also answered.

"Both of you in here quick!" Bond ran over to the door and looked out, there was no one there, he ran back to Paris on the bed and something caught his eye.

At the small window on the left side of the bed, two men were hanging, before Bond could get his gun out a shot rang outside the room and the windows exploded as the two men busted inside, from behind Bond the other window was busted out and two more men invaded his room. The four men rushed towards him, none of them carried guns and Bond got his gun and tried to take a shot, however one of the men threw a stick at Bond and it hit him in the chest, Bond's entire body went numb and his eyes crossed as he fell to the floor. Bond's mind raced he could see the men grabbing Paris and running outside and then he saw Morales run in, his eyes blurred again, and then he regained his ability to move and he got up and shot one of the men in the leg and he fell to the ground, he saw Morales take out his gun and begin to shoot but from seemingly nowhere something smashed into him and knocked him over.

Blocking Bond from the entrance was a man in a suit of armor, it was silver and even had a helmet, Bond was perplexed for a moment, but when the suit of armor pulled out a gun it was clear what was happening. Before the man could shoot at Bond, Bond had already shot and dodged, the bullet grazed the armor and the suit took a shot, from the medium size gun that the man held a huge explosion erupted. With that one shot most of Bond's room was dismantled and his bed flew in the air and landed on top of him. When Bond managed to get from under the bed he checked Morales, who was knocked out, and then ran outside.

"M…!" Bond yelled.

"Yes Bond." M answered, Bond turned the corner and checked the communicator in his ear."I've been attacked and in the process they've got Paris!" Bond alerted him, He heard M groan over the communicator.

"You have complete control over the situation…" M explained quickly. "…You may do whatever you feel is necessary to get her back!" M concluded.

"Right." Bond answered.

Instead of following the men down the stairs Bond ran to the stairs and went upstairs, on the twentieth floor, was a parking lot, in the parking lot was his Lotus Esprit, he was quick in jumping inside and turning it on. He drove around the lot, but figured in the time t would take him to reach the first floor the men would have been gone with Paris, even if they were on foot it would be next to impossible to find them, so he turned around the lot again. In the far end of the lot there was a tow truck, one of the double Decker ones that held cars on a top level , however there were no cars on the top level and the ramp was down, and the truck was in front of the window. Bond accelerated towards the truck and didn't slow down, as always there was no time to think, just to do. The car slammed on the ramp, and rode on the top level, and then smashed through the window. The car landed on the side of the building and raced down the side with such speed that Bond couldn't process the rate at which he was falling, below him he could see a group of cars leaving the hotel and assumed easily that Paris was in one of those cars, he passed a window and the car jumped over it before going on quicker. That meant that Bond was catching up to the tenth floor, he turned slightly and the car almost went out of control, he knew he needed to go faster but was hesitant to press on the gas, he was already moving so fast and had very little control. Another window rocked the car and he could see the cars pulling out onto the main road, he knew he had to catch them and get Paris, but there was no reason to, he just wanted to. Bond pressed the gas and the car careened towards the ground, another window, at the way he was going he wouldn't be able to land on the road the right way, he turned the car to the left and the right side of the car came off the wall a bit and he hit the brakes, the car's right end hit the pavement and Bond drove after the cars. They instantly pulled off from each other but Bond knew which car to go after, it was in the lead and he could see Paris fighting in the back seat.

Three things troubled him, one was that the mole had to have been the one to alert the thugs to Bond and Paris' whereabouts, and he had only let M know where we was going, so he could be bugged, or it could be something else. The lack of clarity bothered him, he hadn't had the time to sit down and think it out and he felt that it was obvious. The second was this new character in the hotel who helped kidnap Paris, Bond knew that this wasn't going to be the last he saw of the man in the suit of armor, and he also felt that this man could pose a suitable threat, he'd have to dig information about him too. The third was the most prominent at the time, the cars were heading for a near by highway, bond was sure once they were on the highway he would lose every chance to catch the car, without causing some kind of disaster. The situation had gone from calm to out of his control very quickly. Suddenly a car hit him form behind, the Lotus Esprit was armored so Bond barley felt the attack, and as the car came around he did the same back and cause the car to go off the road and crash into a tree.

"M I'm not sure if I'm going to get her back…" Bond reported. "…Run this license plate number." Bond looked forward and noticed something.

"Yes 007?" M asked.

"They don't have plates…!" Bond yelled, Bond swerved his car around one of the decoy cars.

"Bond its imperative that we get as much information from her as possible…" M started, Bond could already sense where this was going. "…But if you feel she doesn't have anymore information to divulge then you must let her go, this can't be a personal vendetta." M explained. At that moment felt most upset, what M said was right, but Bond couldn't just leave her.

"No, she's hiding more…" Bond said.

"Then do whatever you can to get her back." M ordered. Bullet fire exploded from another car and Bond was distracted for a moment, he tried to keep his eyes on the lead car and estimate how much time he had until they reached the highway. He guessed that he only had about three minutes, that wasn't nearly enough time, he had to do something, stop that car, even if it meant taking Paris out and fighting everyone of those men by himself.

Bond flicked a switch in his car to start the machine guns, he could feel the machine guns moving to the outside of the car, he had to wait for a opportune time to fire, he had to aim, hit one of the wheels, that would cause the car to spin out of control and then he could, jump in and get Paris, then he would put her in the Esprit and drive and find Goodhead and then…

Bond almost missed his chance, the car passed directly in front of him, Bond hit the trigger and the most terrible groan came from within the car, it shook, and sputter a little and worst of al, it didn't shoot. Bond tried the guns again and nothing, Bond went through all the gadgets, oil slicks, deployable spikes, lasers, nothing worked everything made the same groaning sound.

"M…!" Bond yelled, he was feeling something set into his body, something he had never remember feeling before…panic.

"What now 007?" M yelled back.

"My car isn't working, none of the equipment is useable." Bond stated with a more calm voice.

"What…?" M asked in disbelief. "…This is absurd…" M went on, his voice grew in anger, and Bond could hear him switch the intercom to get to Moneypenny. "…get Q on this line NOW!"

Bond accelerated and tried to catch up to the lead car but when he got close the other cars moved in and blocked him, Bond tried to use his stock racing technique, but the cars were relentless he couldn't get an edge on any one of them.

"What is it 007!" Q's voice angrily interrupted.

"None of my equipment in the Esprit is working Q!" Bond complained and he tried, unsuccessfully, to pass a car.

"Well that's simple Bond…" Q answered. "…Is the car on?" Q asked. Before Bond could answer with his anger M interjected.

"Of course the car is on Q!" M yelled, Q sighed on his end of the communicator.

"Well Bond what did you do to the car?" Q asked.

"Nothing I've just been driving." Bond answered as he tried to devise a plan to get the lead car.

"Well, if you look in the ash tray there should be a red cord, if you snap that it may release some pressure in the cars central valve, now granted the car may also spin out of control but-" Q rambled on.

"Q, that didn't work!" Bond answered.

"Well then 007 I have no idea what it could be."

"Q, you've given Bond a malfunctioning piece of equipment in the field there will be a cost to this." M alerted Q.

"Well its not my fault if 007 reckless actions have come to bite him in the behind, perhaps you should consider-" Q was interrupted by the sounds of tires screeching against asphalt, then silence.

"007 are you alight?" M asked, there was a long silence and then the both of them heard Bond curse.

"007?" Q asked.

"The car stopped."


	10. New Assignments

Chapter Ten

New Assignments.

While M dealt with the local authorities about the mess Bond had made in the hotel, Bond was brought back to Goodhead, she explained that she went to investigate the thugs at Paris' hotel when she had been alerted that there was gunfire in a local hotel and that she had taken the assumption that it was Bond's, however when she arrived, everything was over and she had found Morales unconscious on Bond's floor.

"What about Gonzales?" Bond asked suspiciously, she frowned.

"A bellhop found him unconscious on the floor below yours…" Goodhead explained. "…he said he had been hit by something and he can't remember anything else." Goodhead finished, Bond sighed, he was very aggravated, he had no clue where Paris was, and there was nothing he could do about it.

"Bring them both in here." Bond ordered, Goodhead nodded and left the office.

For a moment bond just sat there and thought about what had happened, he was angry, but he had no one to blame, he didn't blame Q this had never happened before and Q was investigating the problem, but it was so sudden and Bond felt so powerless. Bond managed to convince M that Paris was still holding valuable information and M was looking on ways to find her, but still she was gone now and Bond was still sitting here when he could be doing-

The door opened and Morales and Gonzales along with Goodhead stepped in, Goodhead sat across from bond and both of the men sat next to her.

"Did anything of you see anything?" Bond asked, Morales didn't react but Gonzales stirred.

"After you called us up Mr. Bond I went out into the hallway and before I could get to the stairs someone hit me." Gonzales explained. Bond frowned, he didn't like the fact that he trusted Gonzales so much, the little man seemed to exude truth, and Bond could tell there some admiration on the little man's side.

"What about you?" Bond asked. Morales shook his head.

"I didn't see anything until I got into the room, other than that it seemed as if everything was in order." Morales answered. Bond stood up and made no effort to mask his anger.

"So we've got no leads?" Bond stated more than asked.

"Well the security camera's tape in the building are being held until someone picks them up…" Goodhead explained. "…But M has asked me to stay here with Bond."

"I can pick them up." Gonzales said, he stood up and the bandage on his head finally was shown.

"No you're too hurt I'll get them." Morales suggested, Gonzales sat.

"Thank you Morales." Bond said, trying to ease his anger. Morales left. For a moment the rest of them just sat there. Goodhead tried to ease the tension.

"I'm sure we'll run into her again." She said. Bond waved it off.

"I was thinking about the car…" Bond explained, the reassurance in his voice wasn't completely convincing however Goodhead believed that Paris' kidnapping wasn't the only thing in Bond's mind. "…I've never had that problem before." Bond concluded, Goodhead sense he was leading up to something else but stopped short for some reason, Goodhead trusted bond's judgment though and didn't question it.

"I'm sure Q will figure out what was wrong with it." Gonzales offered as consolation, Bond nodded, his face lit up as something came back into his mind.

"I found some type of laboratory in Acosta's estate." He blurted, Goodhead and Gonzales looked at him with astonished eyes because the revelation seemed to be something Bond wouldn't forget to mention.

"What kind of laboratory?" Gonzales asked, Bond stood up.

"I'm not quite sure, but it seemed to be culturing something." Bond explained, his thoughts went back to the lab, he wasn't sure at all what the lab was being used for, and that white substance.

"Something like what 007?" M asked over the communicator, up until now he had been busy dealing with the local government to have Bond's, theatrical lack of a, rescue erased.

"I'm not sure M…" Bond said. "…there was some white substance." Bond instantly regretted adding that.

"Give a better description 007." M tried to remain calm, he was also upset with Paris' kidnapping, and now this, but he also understood Bond's frustration, or at least he understood it from a professional stand point.

"It was a paste of some type, but not terribly thick." Bond explained, the silence from M clearly identified the lack of patience becoming more apparent.

"007 you just described mayonnaise." M answered Bond's explanation.

"I didn't have enough time to get a sample." Bond excused himself.

"Could we go back an obtain one?" Goodhead asked.

"That would be risking our entire operation; we won't have the cover of a big race anymore." Gonzales answered.

"Agreed." M chimed in, Bond shook his head, this entire operation seemed to be based on vagueness, nothing was thoroughly explained.

"What should I do then?" Bond asked. Again a silence from M, but this time it was apparent that he was searching for an answer.

"We'll have to wait, monitor Acosta's actions, if he had anything to do with this kidnapping then he should provide some clues to where Paris is being held." M explained, Bond agreed but he didn't like the idea of just waiting for something bad to happen.

"So the wait begins." Goodhead sighed.

"Well in the meantime I have more information on this Petrovski character." M relayed.

"What did you find out M?" Bond asked.

"Q was right when he identified him as a bomb specialist; he indeed makes his own hybrid bombs and sells them at astronomical prices…" M shuffled through some papers noisily. "…Worked for the K.G.B before defecting five years ago, and he freelances, however he doesn't only make bombs but weapons in general." M went on.

"That would explain that gun you described in your room earlier." Goodhead said more to herself.

"…right, he isn't considered dangerous, in fact he has a reputation for being the opposite, he's a coward who uses any means to escape direct confrontation and uses his customers as protection until he finds someone new, he also is rumored to have stolen a suitcase bomb from the soviet union before his defection." M explained.

"How sure on that are we and if it is true what bearing would it have on our situation?" Bond asked.

"We're not one hundred percent sure on it and if it is true it would have a lot of bearing on your situation…" M said. "…I'm sure if Petrovski is working for Acosta, Acosta has more than enough money to accommodate him for it, for what purposes Acosta would need something like a bloody suitcase bomb is beyond me." M said.

"This could get very messy." Goodhead added in.

"I wouldn't jump to conclusions yet…" M tried to reassure the situation. "…it's not confirmed there are any suitcase bombs left in existence, the only one we've heard of was a identified from a description from 004 who wasn't able to positively identify it before he was killed." M explained.

"Still we should keep out eyes and ears open." Gonzales reinforced.

"Right, that's what your job is to do regardless." M said, Bond went to speak up but before he could Q interrupted.

"M tell 007 to come down to my lab immediately…" Q said. "…I found something rather interesting."

"I'll be there in five minutes." Bond confirmed, Goodhead and Gonzales followed Bond outside and to Q's lab.

007 

Q Sat in a chair in his lab waiting for Bond to show up, Bond had promised to take no more than five minutes and he was ten minutes late when he showed up. Bond was surprised to see Q sitting in a chair, he expected to twist and turn or shoot some venomous dart or fire out the sides, but it didn't it was an ordinary chair, and Q was ordinarily upset.

"Your late 007!" Q snapped as bond and crew came down the steps. Bond ignored Q for the time being,

"What's wrong with the car?" Bond asked. Q walked over to the table and picked up a tiny rectangular object.

"This." Q minimally explained. Bond took it into his hands and examined it, as if he might be able to identify it and then passed in on to Goodhead and Gonzales.

"What is it?" Bond went on.

"It's a disabler chip..." Q explained. "…it's used to serve as a kind of override for things that tend to be hard for people to handle. Now it isn't sold its experimental, no one had really seen one, just heard about it, once activated it shuts down whatever its installed to, in this case your Lotus Esprit." Q explained.

"You said it used to handle things…" Bond said. "…like what?"

"Like a car, or a large piece of machinery…" Q explained. "…the soviets developed it to keep a handle on some automatic weapons, that interestingly enough, were never used either." Q went on.

"Weapons, like a rocket firing revolver?" Bond asked.

"Don't be ridiculous Bond!" Q interjected,

"Or maybe a handgun that uses shotgun rounds…" Bond added. "…it could serve as a sort of safety." Bond said.

"Well theoretically yes." Q said.

"Like that gun our mystery man used on me in my hotel room." Bond concluded. Goodhead nodded.

"I suppose but-"

"You say the soviets developed it?" Bond asked.

"Yes."

"About when?" He continued.

"Four maybe five years ago." Q explained.

"Petrovski." Gonzales connected the dots first.

"What, you think he might have made one of these?" Q asked.

"Yes." Bond simply answered.

"How do you suppose he installed it into your car?" Q asked.

"I'm not sure yet, but now we have a link to Petrovski and the kidnapping." Bond said.

"Now we have to find him." Goodhead grimaced.

"That won't be as hard as it seems." M interrupted.

"You found him?" Bond asked.

"No, even better…" M started. "…Acosta has been spotted leaving the country and heading to the Caribbean." M explained.

"Shall I intercept?" Bond asked.

"No let him go, you have clearance to go to Jamaica, where he's heading and pursue him there…" M ordered. "…Bond this is your chance, I'll send someone to assist you."


	11. A Friend on The Island

Chapter Eleven

A Friend on the Island

Bond headed for Jamaica alone, Goodhead, Gonzales followed along in a following flight, and Morales in a later flight. It wasn't Bond's first time in Jamaica and he doubted it would be his last, he knew some of the hangouts and hot areas for sophisticated crime. The situation required Bond be as covert as possible, Acosta was aware of what Bond looked like, and it wasn't impossible for Acosta to have spread Bond's picture around to his henchmen, It was Bond however who had the upper hand, Bond knew Acosta was here but Acosta didn't know Bond was here, also Bond didn't enter the country under his own name and didn't plan on entering a hotel under his own name. The situation also called for Bond to be quick, at anytime Paris could be transferred out of the country, it didn't seem as if M was going to be able to get the country's government to cooperate with him, they were already weary with the American's and for the British to get involved it didn't make the Jamaican government feel any less annoyed. Bond was also being instructed to keep the destruction to a minimum, M stressed that Bond's stunt in New Mexico couldn't be repeated here. Bond kept Paris' information about Acosta's base of operations being in the Caribbean, M wouldn't want Bond to take on anything without first getting the government on his side. Bond didn't feel, however, that waiting was the best option. If Acosta was doing things in the Caribbean Bond was determined to find out where and what it was. Bond also felt the American's being here didn't help his situation, he knew he needed Goodhead, Gonzales and Morales, but he didn't want them stepping on his toes, they weren't on the same page as him right now, he needed to get Paris and they didn't understand how to go about it.

Bond rarely trusted anyone, and right now he was figuring a plan to bog the American's with things so he could get things done. Having allies was necessary, but Bond thought different from people, he went the distance each time, and it was clear that the lives of other people sometimes had to take the back seat, only when their lives were in danger, other than that sometimes, for the better of the people, they had to experience something drastic. Despite Bond being part of MI6 for many years know, M still maintained the leave no trace mindset. Bond didn't feel that M was wrong but rather that it was outdated and varied for different situations. Of course M felt that Bond was an extremist, he trusted job always to get the job done, but M felt he was too hasty sometimes and didn't plan things through and caused a lot of problems that didn't have to be, since Bond had been 'drafted' into MI6 he and M were at odds about a great many things, but M respected Bond as an amazing field operative and M respected M as a strategist, together the both of them had saved the world a lot of times, and sometimes they had to be in absence of each other to do so. Whenever M was restricted by the laws of her majesty Bond wasn't afraid to go out of his reach and M was never afraid to respectively turn the other cheek and let Bond do whatever he had to do. There was always something going on, some bomb about to be detonated, some mad man threatening human life and when it became too close to comfort M and Bond went to business. However Bond wasn't always on assignments alone, as was the case now with the C.I.A. but he did have his 'regulars' and when he set down in Jamaica he met one of them.

Bond, as always, ended his plan ride and walked out of the airport and was going to catch a taxi, Bond wore his sunglasses to hide his identity, he noticed someone was following him and he was sure he had found his mole, he hadn't noticed the man before, but it wasn't entirely impossible for him to have followed Bond all the way from New Mexico. The man walked very close to Bond holding a suitcase, Bond kept watching him from the corner of his eyes, and when the man swung is suitcase at Bond, Bond ducked and went to swing but stopped short because the man quickly blocked, Bond went for another punch stopped when he saw the man smiling at him.

"Felix Leiter you old devil." Bond chuckled, Felix happily greeted him back with a handshake.

"James Bond, it's always a Caribbean adventure with you around." Felix answered. From the last time Bond had seen Leiter, which was in an official report file in which he was named, then he seemed a lot older, here in person Leiter looked a lot younger than Bond remembered him. Bond was fond of Leiter, in a lot of ways, to Bond, Leiter was the embodiment of the relationship between Bond and M. Leiter was bound by the laws of the united states of America and was insistent to do things 'by the book' however he was somewhat of a hot head and when there seemed not to be a reasonable answer to go by Felix wasn't afraid to get dangerous and a bit indignant, Bond admired that a lot, out of all the people he worked with Leiter seemed to be the one person who had that somewhat 'by any means necessary attitude' and Bond found himself able to work with Leiter with more comfort than any other person.

There was a lot more to, after the incident with Teresa, Leiter helped Bond secretly helping him track down Ernst Stavro Blofeld, it was another situation in which M felt that bond was being unruly and insisting he had become obsessive in finding Blofeld. However M wasn't completely without sentiment, he understood and didn't blame Bond for his 'obsession' but in order for Bond to remain the amazing field agent he was he had to let it go. Nevertheless Felix felt that Blofeld had to be dealt with for more reasons than one. Blofeld was the head of the extremely complicated crime syndicate S.P.E.C.T.R.E. S.P.E.C.T.R.E had been a thorn in both MI6's side as well as the C.I.A. neither of the two however decided to track down and pursue S.P.E.C.T.R.E. instead they waited until the group of tactical and powerful crime lords to attack and threaten the free world again. For a moment Bond's thoughts lingered on something, in his mind he nipped at it over and over again.

_What if MI6 had decided to pursue S.P.E.C.T.R.E? Maybe if they had stopped them then…_

Bond snapped back to reality as Felix tapped him on his back, he pointed to the distance behind him, Bond followed his arm. Leiter was pointing at a very large building.

"What's that…?" Bond asked. "…Acosta's estate?" To bond surprise Felix lightly nodded.

"You could say that…" Felix answered. "…Apparently he owns a large living complex and four hotels in the area." Felix said out the side of his mouth, he squinted and went to say something else but stopped.

"What hotel doesn't Acosta own?" Bond asked, Leiter smiled and walked away a bit.

"The one your staying in and out friends." Leiter answered.

007 

Goodhead wasn't very far behind and she respected Bond's request for the three of them to stay as far behind as they could without arranging a dangerous situation. She however wasn't aware of Felix Leiter's presence in the investigation, and neither were Gonzales or Morales. The situation had become far more complicated than she anticipated, she knew that this was supposedly Acosta's base of operations. Bond's obvious priority was finding Paris and hers was to stop Acosta. She didn't feel any malice towards Bond, but she wanted to end this thing as fast as she could, she would help Bond in anyway she could but first things first. She knew that Acosta was also on top of them and she needed to be careful. Bond was good at concealing his identity but he just couldn't reasonably control his ambitions. The faster she could end this, the easier it would be to find Paris. Deep in her heart though she felt something was about to go terribly wrong.

007 

Bond and Leiter continued their conversation inside the taxi; Bond looked anxiously outside the window as Leiter dictated a few things.

"I'd be lying if I told you that the Jamaican government was happy to see that you're involved with this investigation." Leiter said, Bond nodded and turned his face to Leiter.

"M has informed me; at least they're being cooperative."

"Hardly…" Leiter muttered. "…they insist that Acosta has nothing illegal going on here and that we've poked our noses around too much." Leiter explained.

"They sound as if they're hiding something." Bond inquired.

"Well, that wasn't their choice selection of words, but generally the gist of it…" Leiter frowned. "…it wouldn't be surprising if Acosta had his hands in a few political schemes down here."

"He certainly has enough money to do so..." Bond muttered. "…So what do you know about Acosta?" Bond asked curiously, Leiter was often more informed than the rest of his colleagues he just didn't like to boast it.

"Only as much as you do…" Leiter began. "…I don't suppose the C.I.A. has informed you that you are being shadowed." Leiter revealed. Bond perked up somewhat but then let his feelings decapitate from his face.

"Oh…?" Bond asked. "…really?"

"Yes, really whatever you know he's informed me on…" Leiter explained. "…we'll meet him a little later." Leiter trailed off.

"I look forward to it."

"The funny thing is that I'm not even here because of Acosta I just happened to have him cross my paths." Leiter went on.

"How so?" Bond asked, Leiter faced twisted into a small grin.

"I've been looking for Petrovski, he's been involved with a train bombing in the middle east, disrupted some kind of train line that the local officials claim to be vital to certain shipments…" Leiter explained. "…It just so happens that M believes that Acosta and Petrovski are working together." Leiter let his voice trail off purposely in a question sort of fashion.

"We haven't been able to connect the two of them yet…" Bond answered. "…Petrovski has been semi linked to the kidnapping a informant, if we can link Acosta to either Petrovski or the kidnapping, then we have some weight on the situation. I suppose the Jamaicans want something concrete to excuse our existence here." Bond said.

"That, in fact, is the very situation we're in…" Leiter started. "…The Jamaicans don't want the C.I.A. or the British secret service here, they've requested that if we don't have something concrete to deliver them in three days that the investigation be ended and that you all leave immediately." Leiter explained.

"You all?" Bond asked.

"I'm not officially on your investigation, also Goodhead, Morales and Gonzales have been named, but you have not. If push came to shove you could stay here but under strictly covert circumstances." Leiter continued.

"I would lose my back-up though." Bond stated.

"Now James I've never known you to be particularly interested in having back-up."

"The situation has more of a strain on it than you think." Bond merely stated, not intending a double meaning.

"Is it because you consider Acosta dangerous…?" Leiter asked. "…or because this woman has gone missing?" Leiter went on.

"You know me better than that Leiter." Bond merely answered, knowing that it wouldn't deter Leiter from prying, but trying anyhow.

"So she must be beautiful." Leiter said.

"She's caught up on things we aren't…" Bond answered back. "..You government hasn't been able to supply a reasonable amount information to charge Acosta." Bond criticized.

"Well in that case…" Leiter started. "..she must be stunning."

"What am I doing to track down Acosta?" Bond asked, Leiter's smirk stayed for a while longer, sensing Bond's agitation.

"He has a factory down here that's being the lead on news reports because its apparently opening its doors to two hundred and fifty workers…" Leiter started. "…in this part of town that's just a lot of bragging about how much money he has, but anyhow, your posing as a reporter to get inside and look around."

"Wouldn't it be wiser to send Goodhead or someone else?" Bond asked, Leiter didn't seem to even consider the question.

"No, they want you to go, I don't know why but you have to." Leiter answered.

"Who is this 'they'?" Bond asked, Leiter shook his head.

"It's better if you don't know." Leiter answered, Bond didn't' bother to argue with him and let the question go.

"Petrovski." Bond muttered.

"What about him?" Leiter asked, Bond didn't immediately answer; he seemed to be thinking hard about how to answer the question.

"I wonder how dangerous he is" Bond continued to mutter.

"Apparently he's only dangerous when he was making bombs but to us he shouldn't be a problem, all we have to do is apprehend him." Leiter explained.

"Are you familiar with his involvement with the suitcase bomb?" Bond asked, Leiter again shook his head, as if to imply what Bond had just mentioned wasn't important.

"I'm not convinced he has one." Leiter said. "…if he did I don't think he'd be so submissive to the highest bidder." Leiter further explained himself.

"If he did though…" Bond started up again. "…this situation could be more explosive than I care for it to be." Bond said.

"Well if he does…" Leiter mocked. "…I'm sure we can handle it." Leiter ended that part of the conversation with a grunt.

"By the way Leiter…" Bond began. "…what has become of the old Strangways place?" Bond asked.

"They took it down; it became too risky to keep it there." Leiter answered.

Bond stared out the window again and now they were close to the hotel, something felt…off. Bond wasn't sure what but something just didn't feel as if being in Jamaica was going to be productive; in fact it felt as if it was going to be the exact opposite.

"We're here." The cabby answered, Leiter paid and stepped out of the car, and Bond followed.

"I've decided to extend your request for isolation to myself." Leiter explained.

"So you're not staying in this hotel?" Bond asked.

"No, I'll be staying in one not far from here." Leiter explained.

"Fine. Bond answered, Bond started walking towards the hotel.

"James…" Leiter called, Bond turned around and squinted in the sunlight. "…be careful." Bond smiled and went into the hotel.

The hotel wasn't like the other two Bond had stayed in, both of them had been carefully aimed to not remind the person who was staying there where exactly they were. This one however was overly eager to present the occupants with the constant and blatant reminder that they were in fact in Jamaica. Everywhere you looked it was the Jamaican flag, Bond felt that this place was less likely to draw attention to itself and thought it was a good spot.

His room was standard and he searched it like he always did. Under the picture, under the phone, statues, dressers and mirrors, he didn't find anything that seemed to be some kind of device to spy on him. Bond found this to be an interesting dynamic in this investigation, usually Bond's adversaries did what they could to find out what bond knew, and in this case Acosta hadn't seemed to do anything to stop Bond. With the exception of the mole, whoever this mole was they were crafty and had to have been right on Bond and Bond was so distracted by the other workings of the investigation.

Bond was ready to go to the plant as the reporter but he had to wait, time tonight he would have to sit and wait for tomorrow to come.

007 

He walked, slowly and methodically, but walking nevertheless. His eyes stayed trained outside the window, the crisp blue sky playing against its twin, the ocean. Everything seemed peaceful and perfect, however he knew that things were different. In this island lied some of his deepest secrets, and they were about to all come to the light. The question was, was this the right time? For a second he glared out the window. The train bombing, the kidnapping and now here, it was all unnecessary and could put a lot of focus on the wrong things. Everyone was waiting for this all to just to end, and he planned this out for too long for this to go wrong, there was no reason why this should go wrong either, rather, there was a reason now. Some where on this island was the man who threatened to stop all the things he had put forward. James Bond. Out of all the people in the world, he hadn't anticipated the British secret service to get involved, but they had and this James Bond was far more tenacious than he had assumed. Bond's determination was a bit uncanny, and up until recently unfounded, but now it was making sense. Paris. She was in fact very beautiful and sometimes more intelligent than she needed to be, intelligent and nosey. However she didn't know anything, so she couldn't divulge anything, still this was safer. The problem was that holding her made it that much more likely that Bond would come after him, Bond was smart, daring and dangerous, all things that the C.I.A. weren't and most of all he was reckless. There were ways around everything though, as dangerous as Bond could be there could be a thousand people far more dangerous, and money provided that security. So in ways Bond wasn't of much concern. He turned away from the window just as someone came into his door.

"It's time Mr. Acosta." The man said, he nodded and followed.

007 

Tracy Di Vicenzo was her name, her maiden name that is, she was the daughter of the notorious crime lord Marc Ange Draco. Draco, who was the head of the Union Corse, approached Bond to tame his daughter. Draco explained to Bond that after Tracy's mother's death, when she was twelve, Draco raised her alone and now he felt as if it was time for a man to take control of her. Bond was surprised that Draco had approached him, but Bond soon realized that Draco was a decent man, and even had a large legitimate business in construction based in Portugal, Draco's proposition was even more surprising. Being that Bond and Tracy had come into contact previously when he saved Tracy for committing suicide, Draco wanted Bond to marry Tracy to help reawaken her interest in life at the payment of one million pounds, initially Bond turned Draco down, the entire idea seemed absurd, but as things would come to be, Bond spent more and more time with Tracy and despite his feverish tracking of Blofeld to the Swiss Alps, Bond found himself falling more and more in love with Tracy.

The situation was complicated though, Bond was searching for Blofeld and had managed to track him down to Piz Gloria in the Swiss Alps, posing as Sir Hilary Bray, a genealogist, Bond set to trace Blofeld's family history. During the covert mission Bond was exposed and captured by Blofeld. Bond made a narrow escape and, had it not been for the coincidental chance that Tracy was visiting the nearby village, Bond would have been recaptured but escaped with Tracy. That's when everything started to change, Bond began to feel that there was something different about Tracy. The way she looked at him and the things she said, it was hard to believe that Bond was being, in a word, seduced by this woman. Tracy was then kidnapped by Blofeld and Bond went after Blofeld.

How similar was the situation he was in, except that, Bond had saved Tracy and declared his love. The two of them married, everyone came and again M served a lot like Bond's father, the marriage was almost unbelievable and as quick as it came it had gone. Bond thought he had killed Blofeld and as Bond and his newly wedded wife drove down a highway, Blofeld pulled up and unloaded on the car. Bond remained unhurt but Tracy was dead. The three words floated in Bond's head, Tracy was dead. Never before had Bond felt such pain. Coming back to MI6 was most likely the strangest thing Bond had ever done. No one bothered to issue Bond any condolences, everything was quiet, and M treated the situation as if nothing had happened, he knew Bond for too long to try and console him. Bond became obsessive, Blofeld became the only name he knew, M loaned Bond as much patience as he had, Bond's efforts to find Blofeld failed one by one due to his overly obsessive nature and then it seemed as if he had done it, he managed to track down Blofeld and kill him. As things always were, nothing was what it seemed, the man he killed was not Blofeld and in fact on Bond's upcoming assignment Blofeld was the ring leader, he killed him then. That was the last he had ever heard of Blofeld and/or S.P.E.C.T.R.E. Someone had told Bond one time that he had to put a period there and let the past go. Bond felt that he had done a substantial job in making everyone believe that; however he still thought about her, more often than not actually.

Paris was a lot like Tracy, they looked alike and they acted the same way. They both had a very blatant disregard for Bond, Bond wasn't sure which he liked more, the woman who was willing, or the woman who refused. Just like Tracy it was obvious that Paris had some type of feeling for him, Bond hadn't really bothered to exploit that in Tracy, in fact you could say she exploited him. Both of these woman seemed to be to the point and more than anything up to the neck in trouble.

The difference between them however was by the man 'in charge' of them, while Tracy's father was endorsing Bond's relationship with Tracy, Acosta didn't seem to be willing to give up his prize, from what Bond could tell, Acosta seemed like a man who could throw his power around easily, if he wanted Paris Bond was sure all he had to do was say the word and he'd have her again. Which would explain what had happened. If M knew what Bond was thinking he wouldn't be pleased, there was still the assignment, it didn't end at getting Paris back, it ended with finding out what Acosta was up to and if Bond's luck continued as it always did, that would only be the beginning.

007 

As Bond had expected the tour of the processing plant was saturated with a thousand and one self issued compliments of Acosta's business and contributions to his various different communities. The tour seemed strangely shifty at one point, the cars were taken down a back road to an old living community made up of many buildings that seemed to be a slum, but when they entered the buildings it was clear that this wasn't a slum, but a large working complex. According to the tour guide the company had bought one building six years ago and over the course of three years bought the entire building complex and offered many people a large range of jobs. This new campaign of jobs was seemingly Acosta's idea all together insisting that another branch of workers be created to be expanded from two hundred fifty workers to six hundred workers in three more years, every three years continuing the pattern. Bond was surprised to learn what Acosta's export was: poppy seeds. How a man became a millionaire off of poppy seeds was beyond him. The tour naturally began with the explanation for that, Acosta was now the leading business in selling poppy seeds across the U.S. and in the Caribbean, and though it didn't seem lucrative, the business was very much so, Acosta manufacturing of poppy seeds was outrageous, he was able to produce a million poppy seeds every business standard day (the tour guide no doubt left out that a 'business standard day' was only eighteen hours) Acosta produced poppy seeds for companies all across the region, which apparently was good enough to keep him well off. The tour wasn't enough to go on, someone had obviously scripted it and all it did was give Acosta somewhat of a superman-ish power, so caring and so nice yet so effective and strong.

The tour guide was a very tall woman who smile, at first, seemed genuine but then after a half an hour of smiling seemed plastered on in some sort of way. At some point one of the other reporters asked a question and the guide's answer was so robotic that it occurred to Bond that perhaps she could be some form of animatronics device, but that was silly. A fact that Bond noticed the guide conveniently left out were a list of Acosta's clients.

"What are some of the businesses Acosta's supplies these poppy seeds to?" Bond asked, the tour guide's face didn't flinch or even show traces of thought.

"Everyone who needs seeds in the greater North America and Caribbean region is supplied by Julio Acosta" She answered, Bond took note of that, he was still skeptical, poppy seeds didn't seem to do the trick.

"_Every _company that uses poppy seeds gets their seeds from Acosta?" Bond asked. The tour guide nodded.

"Even some of his competitions are supplied by our company…" She continued to answer. "…they usually have other means of export and of course Acosta is a firm believer in competition" She finished, Bond nodded and wrote that down, she seemed to be anticipating another question but Bond stayed quiet.

According to the C.I.A. report on their investigation on Acosta, the last agent sent here had been found dead after investigating these exact buildings, Bond obviously figured this was ground zero; whatever was happening it was happening here. The floors had been taken out of the building and the entire inside was filled up with a cluster of different processing machines. Everything was supposed to be in clear sight, but it wouldn't be any surprise to Bond if there was some other floor somewhere. From here it seemed as if the seeds were going through a long process and Bond wasn't exactly sure what was happening to them. The tour guide lead them under an underpass of machinery, Bond looked around above the smallest of the machines there was an observation post, unlike the rest of the dimly lit building the observation deck was brightly lit and empty. Bond eyed the place for a moment, but didn't make it obvious, everything seemed normal except for the fact that there was no one in the observation deck.

"What processes do the seeds go through…?" Bond asked "…this seems like an awful lot to glaze them."

"Most of Acosta's seeds go through hours of processing; they start out in one of the buildings farther down then are transferred by truck from building to building until they end up here…" The guide started. "…the seeds are grounded into very tiny pieces, and then put in crates and shipped to four of our sorting ports in New Mexico and then shipped to their other buyers. The demand for Acosta's seeds are especially high, the seeds are genetically engineered..."

**"**_Bingo…"_ Bond thought. "…_Genetically engineered"_ Bond had a lot more to worry about now, the engineering put Acosta into a different category. The lab in his basement made a little more sense now.

"… They grow so quickly, the tiny seeds actually grow during the trip to the sorting ports, the enhancements make them more flavorful and last longer." She finished explaining. The other reporters seemed astonished but Bond wasn't; now he was suspicious.

"So there are genetics plants around here?" Another reporter asked.

"No, they aren't." The guide answered tersely. Bond took note of the sudden change in the guide's voice; she seemed to have a lot of knowledge, for her to get so quickly upset over a simple question. The woman seemed to think for a moment and then the moment of anger seemed to pass. Bond didn't say bother to make any more of the tour. Bond again looked up at the observation deck; a light in the deck had been turned off. Someone had just been in there; Bond looked away trying not to look suspicious, all around the plant it was loud and large the amount of small niches and secret doors that could have been hidden in here. That was part of the problem this place was too obvious, Acosta knew he was under investigation and there was a lot he could have done to keep anyone from seeing this place, but instead he didn't, it seemed too compromising. However there was nothing suspicious about this place, nothing Bond could prove anyhow. Bond slightly tripped over a box and when he recovered he looked at the box it had been shipped here from America and had been shipped to America from…

Bond squinted trying to see the origin of the shipment but the postage sticker had been torn off, Bond tried to make out the small bit of the sticker that was left but the group had moved on and his falling behind was becoming obvious. Bond walked back to the group and they were going on about Acosta's personal life, all things that weren't important to him at the moment. Bond looked around again; there was something about this place that was odd, what bothered him the most was that he couldn't tell what it was, there was only one thing he could think of doing was by provoking this situation.

"Isn't Acosta in some sort of scandal, something with someone being found dead on his property?" Bond asked, as he finished his sentence every head turned and faced him. The woman, who was in the middle of speaking choked on her words and her eyes bulged for a moment, she took a long pause before producing a sloppy answer.

"Acosta _was_ under investigation by the C.I.A. because of an accident here in the Caribbean." She answered, Bond took note of three key words in that answer: " was", " C.I.A." and "Caribbean". Bond knew that Acosta was still under investigation and he had a feeling that she knew that too, the second was that he hadn't mentioned the C.I.A. in his question at all, and third he didn't mention it was in the Caribbean, she proved to know more than she should have.

"The _C.I.A._, why hasn't this been mentioned before…?" Another reporter asked. "..,.some kind of cover-up?" The woman seemed to take great offense to his question, she stood up tall as if to scare the reporters from writing all this down, but Bond stood up too to look her square in the eyes.

"No its not a cover-up…" She sternly answered. "…it was a mistake and Acosta has been more than cooperative in assisting the C.I.A. in their investigation." The woman answered.

"What happened, so that the C.I.A. felt they needed to get involved?" Bond egged on, the woman seemed as if she was going to jump forward towards Bond he played as if he didn't see anything wrong with the questions.

"Someone was hurt in one of the factories." The woman tersely answered.

"The C.I.A. doesn't involve itself in affairs where someone is merely hurt." Another reporter commented, the woman's head jerked towards the reporter.

"Why keep all these secrets be straight forward with us." Another asked. The woman shook her head angrily.

"You're all making a mole hill into a mountain..." The lady insisted. "…the investigation wasn't against Acosta but in conjunction with Acosta." She blatantly lied, more question began to bubble up quickly and too quickly for her to answer.

"Which factory was suspect?" Bond asked, as soon as he asked the question however he felt he had gone too far in asking his questions, but the woman was so flustered.

" Factory three!" She answered defensively, Bond backed down from that moment on and let the tour continue, until they were dismissed without any formal pleasantries.


	12. Goodhead the Spy

Chapter Twelve

Goodhead the Spy.

Goodhead decided that she should be more proactive and do what she could to find out what she could about Acosta's dealing in Jamaica. She left Gonzales and Morales behind to do some sole investigation, after walking around town and discreetly finding out Acosta's businesses she had come to the conclusion that Acosta owned more than not. However a name had came up more than once and that was of a bar on the far end of the town, people had mentioned that out of all the places Acosta owned this bar, which was named 'Bar None', was the only place Acosta frequented, in fact no one had ever mentioned seeing him anywhere else.

It was clear that going to this place would open some doors to the investigation, and Goodhead didn't feel like waiting for Bond to get done with what he was doing, after all it would be more productive to have the information as soon as possible.

In a way Goodhead wasn't a fan of Bond, she respected him a lot, but she also felt that in the time she had worked with him before and now, both governments gave him too much slack, his recklessness wasn't exactly what she was picking at. It was more of the fact that they didn't seem to have plans other than let Bond deal with it, and he was a trustworthy man, but even more so he was guaranteed to get himself into some kind of high scale trouble, he had such a knack. Covertness wasn't his best skill in her opinion, but still the British secret service kept deploying him on various missions. There was no doubt that Bond was the best, the doubt was whether he was always the best choice. Felix Leiter however was a different opinion on Bond, he trusted Bond with his life, but wasn't afraid to voice his opinion on not having Bond put on this assignment. In fact he had been adamant to not have it happen but M had insisted that after Bond's last assignment he needed to have something of this lowered nature. Now things seemed to be more complicated than ever. Bond had also had a profound impact on Leiter, at one point Leiter had been known as a quiet mysterious man, but it was after he met Bond did he become what he was now. An eccentric madman, no one ever bothered not to call Leiter a trigger happy monster. Everyone knew Leiter's name and everyone knew that the way he acted was a direct result of his partnership with Bond. Though Felix was the highest ranking official in his department, he wasn't to prestigious to go on assignments, there was a time when he'd bring back prisoners, but after meeting Bond his record had included more killed or brutally injured. In one case Leiter had brought back someone missing two fingers and a large portion of their foot, when asked what had happened Leiter had merely replied that the man had resisted to the point where he had gotten himself uninjured'. However in Leiter's recent years, a odd calm had come to him, Goodhead suspected that perhaps it was because he had met some woman, Della, if she recalled correctly. Still having Bond and Leiter on this mission seemed like overkill, but then again Bond had a knack for revealing more about the situation than what was on the surface. It didn't frighten her, but it did worry her, if there was something Acosta was hiding then why hadn't they found it? It was all very interesting, and someone was obviously trying to have them killed, the train situation had proved that, all there needed to be was a connection. Hopefully Goodhead would achieve getting that connection if she could find something at this bar.

Working alone also gave her the opportunity to stray away from the mole; Goodhead knew her surroundings and made sure that no one was following her, and if she did find someone following her she wasn't going to let them know she knew. What was important was that she could catch this mole before they could harm the assignment anymore. This was going to be the end of this assignment; Jamaica was they're last stop; Goodhead would make sure of that.

'Bar None' was on the coast, a very convenient spot for the winos who lived there, the bar would obviously be a lucrative business, there was no doubt that the bar would be packed to the brim with noisy patrons. Goodhead could deal with this, it was a 'Bond thing' to her, he would be too noticeable and cause too much of a ruckus and not get anything but a couple of dead bodies, but Goodhead knew how to be indirectly proactive. A bar produced a lot of loose tongues and many of the workers in Acosta's company on the island lived in this part of the island and she had no doubt someone knew something about what was happening. It didn't make sense that the C.I.A. couldn't figure out what Acosta was up to and now that the British secret service was involved Acosta would be even more guarded about the things he did. What Acosta was doing most effectively was making both the C.I.A. and MI6 look like fools. Perhaps that was his entire goal, in the past few years the world's faith in both MI6 and the C.I.A. had been diminished, the cold war was beginning to take its toll on them, as the Russians and the American's raced to further they're progress in the great nuclear race the English were being seen as world police, which didn't go over very well with the rest of the free world. Plus the British were being overrun with tiny small wars popping up across Europe; they were too far spread out and the worst part was that the prediction that the end of the cold war was coming to an end. The problem with that was that there wasn't any clear way to tell how exactly it was going to end, many thought that perhaps it would end with nuclear war. It didn't seem as if it would end any other way and N.A.T.O. was not doing its job, now it was just an assembled body of bickering delegates that never solved any problems but rather postponed them for a time later on.

Everyone knew this, it wasn't something that was hidden from the few of the public, it was only a matter of time before things came to a climatic end. Acosta knew this, he knew with the British chasing 'freedom' and the American's chasing nuclear supremacy, there was few they could do between the two of them to effectively stop a man who was putting them on a wild goose hunt.

So ending this as soon as possible was of optimal preference to Goodhead. Goodhead stood at the entrance to 'Bar None'. She touched the inside of her ear.

"M…" She beckoned. "…I'm going to investigate one of Acosta's bar's, is Bond done yet?" She asked.

"He hasn't reported anything." M answered tersely and particularly without care.

"I'll be out before he gets back, out." She answered. She turned the communicator off, she knew what she was doing, she hadn't been in the C.I.A. for no reason she could make decisions, it was a man's world and if it stayed like that, it was going to be a destroyed world.

The inside of the bar was almost a new world all together, the music crooned from the stage. What Goodhead noticed was that the bar was in fact a bar; many of the bars were actually dance clubs on the island, a lot of the tourism on the island was in fact directed to dance clubs however there were many complaints that there weren't enough places for tourist our even locals to just relax and have a drink with out some loud festive activity going on. Most of the people who made that complaint were people with more money. Goodhead had to hand it to Acosta he was smart, he put the bar in a poorer neighborhood where he could own the land for much cheaper and have regular drunken patrons, but used the bar to entice the wealthy, so the poor and the wealthy had something in common, they were both putting more money in Acosta's pocket. The bar was dark and in the front a woman a man harped on a song he must have felt strongly about because his voice cracked several times and tears ran down his eyes at some points, Goodhead looked around, it was crowded, a group of men heckled those who passed by at a table located almost in the center of the bar, she listened for anything that may have sounded suspicious or be of importance, but it was loud. Goodhead lingered trying to get a grip on the hectic place, she looked around, somewhere on the island there was Acosta's base of operations, she had to find it and what if it was here?

Goodhead looked over to her left and to her surprise she saw a door, the door was marked "do not enter" not 'employees only' or something to that nature, and her instincts told her something was wrong with that. She started towards the door but as she started something caught her ear, something she wasn't expecting to hear at all, in fact when she heard it her blood ran cold and her eyes unfocused a bit. Goodhead turned around and to her surprise heckling a patron was a man and the people around him kept referring to him as one name…

Petrovski.


	13. Hotel Issues 3

Chapter Thirteen

Hotel Issues #3

Bond wasn't always a patient man, after being angrily dismissed from the press tour they were taken back to the main road, they were all going to take a bus back into the main party of the city, but Bond insisted that he had his own transport and would be at the press conference tomorrow, it took a took a great deal of convincing to get the people to leave him at the sight, but finally they did. Skillfully he made his way practically to the front door without being seen. He felt that seeing factory three would do him a better service than just hearing about it. He made sure his gun was in his holster, the last assignment he had been on, he had dropped the gun twice from the holster which was starting to come apart and he didn't feel the patience with dealing with the holster. He wasn't sure exactly where the C.I.A. agent was killed, from the small report he read it had mentioned that his driver recalled letting him off near the factory three and then later on the driver was killed before he could give any more information. Either way factory three was the biggest of the buildings and also the loudest, even if there weren't any clues to go on this would be the first place Bond would have looked. Surprisingly there were no guards around, but Bond knew better someone like Acosta wasn't silly enough to not have guards, even if this plant was legit, he wouldn't be a show off and not have guards, not unless it was protected by some other means of security. Cameras were usually the other option however Bond was careful not to be in the range of any cameras he could see, and he was alert he hadn't seen anything. The lack of security was troubling to Bond, there must be something else guarding this place, but the question was what.

Bond walked up to the door and took something out of his pocket, he placed it to the door and placed it in the key hold and turned twice, the door clicked open loudly and Bond ducked behind the opening door. Bond waited for someone to come and investigate but no one came. He took his gun out and walked into the building, unlike the other building this one was absolutely huge, Bond was surprised to see how much larger it was on the inside of the building than what the outside presented. There wasn't enough time to check the entire place out but Bond wanted to do some investigating anyway. The rumble of the machines at first stifled Bond's concentration but he was too experienced to let it get to him. He noticed a series of crates across the floor. M was a smart man, Bond sifted in his mind why M had decided to send Bond on the assignment, at first it seemed to be beneath him, but now it made sense. Julio Acosta was a man who could easily be seen as neutral person but in fact he was a slippery man who had his tracks covered carefully. Bond knew that M respected him, and though they had never bothered to say it they both knew that M felt Bond was the best agent he had. Though Bond was reckless and gratuitous at times M knew that that was just the way Bond worked. Too many of 00 agents were too by the book, and M knew that what was written in the laws was meant to protect the people but sometimes the laws got in the way of getting things done, and where some agents would think twice to break the law, bond just did what he had to and got the job done. However that didn't mean that sometimes Bond didn't go too far, sometimes it seemed like the damage Bond cause would be irreversible but it never ended that way. The problem was that Bond was fighting a blind battle on this assignment; if Bond could get some clear villainy from Acosta directly he would have something to work with. It helped that Leiter was on the assignment as well because Leiter, like Bond himself, had a knack for being hunted. The name James Bond was known, he was the one person no criminal wanted to come to contact with, but the satisfaction of knowing that they could defeat Bond was often too much to handle, so in turn Bond usually used himself as bait to lure out his enemies. It never failed there was always something or someone that couldn't be controlled or a moment where the enemy was sure he had triumphed and revealed every bit of the nature of their plan and gave Bond what he needed to pursue. It was only a matter of time before Acosta would make the same mistake, his power was his money, and that was all, money wasn't an object to Bond, once he had Acosta alone the situation would be dealt with but he wouldn't be able to get that close unless he could find that mole and stop them. There was another idea in his mind though, a mole was an information giver so the worst thing hat could happen to a mole was receiving the wrong information, all he had to do was mislead all the people around him and one by one they would come to understand his lie and when the mole found out the enemy would find out and Bond would know who it was. It was all a matter of time, and that's where the patience came in.

The crates were being used for shipping there were many of them, about a couple hundred, Bond could see that most of them were American stamped for New Mexico and all the others were from New Mexico to Jamaica. Bond moved himself between the boxes and inspected them, the crates were made of wood however inside there were containers were the poppy seeds were stored. The container was either made of plastic or metal and was very heavy. Bond tried to pick one up but it was far too heavy to get off the ground. '_How many poppy seeds could be in one container to be this heavy?'_ Bond thought. He left the container alone and as he put the crate down he noticed something.

Recently, do to tensions in Europe, an international law had been put into effect to label international cargo, it held a distinctive symbol with the letters I.C.C., for the international cargo committee, in bold green letters. Though Jamaica was not apart of the united states it did not need a I.C.C. stamp because all cargo that came from the United states to island in the Caribbean went through American inspection in Puerto Rico first and then was distributed to its destination in the Caribbean. So this meant that the shipping was going somewhere else and M had mentioned only two shipping points and neither of them were out of the country. The crate was in a tight spot and Bond couldn't really maneuver his way to see what the crate said and that's when it hit him. The crate wasn't put their by coincidence, it was being hidden, trying to as quiet as he could Bond began to push over different crates until he could see the crates stamp and the national sticker where it had come from. The sticker was of Afghanistan, normally this would only bring forward some minor questions in Bond's mind, however the last year had been of great changes for Afghanistan. The Russians were seemingly doing their part to bring peace between themselves and the Afghans. The rumor was that they were debating a treaty in which the Russians were looking for some usable land in the desert to create a military armory laboratory and in return would offer the Afghans peace and security through the Soviet Union. So this indirectly put Acosta in dealings with the Russians but still it didn't amount to anything. Bond took out a small Q camera out of his pocket and took a picture, but he didn't stay in longer instead he made his way out covertly and back to the safety of his hotel.

007 

To Bond's surprise there was some type of festival going on near his hotel, so when he arrived there no one was around. He walked up the stairs to his room without even trying to see if one of the receptionists were still there, from what he could tell there was no one in the hotel. Everyone was taking part in the festival. It was probably all for the better, he'd meet up with Goodhead and Leiter in a little while and they would be able to brainstorm their next plan of action. Brainstorming would take a long time and would also give Acosta more time to work out whatever he was doing here. It wasn't the best of options but there was nothing else they could do as of now. Somewhere out there was Paris as well, Bond was starting to wonder if he would in fact see her again, and the prospect of getting her back was fleeting. Bond wondered if Paris was on the island, if she was that meant Bond was so close yet he couldn't get her because Acosta had Bond bogged down in procedures.

Bond put the key into the hole and opened the door, he stepped in and threw he jacket onto the bed, outside the room the festival was loud, the banging of drums, shouting and singing. Bond sighed; no he had to wait for Goodhead and Felix to arrive. Waiting around was the part of patience that Bond wasn't especially good at. Bond couldn't make any moves until he consulted with his C.I.A. counterparts, he didn't mind being around Goodhead or Felix it was just that he liked to do things on his own time and be able to move freely. The problem was that M had reminded him too many times that this was not MI6 investigation and that he was working as a helper to the C.I.A. he was not to work independently unless it was authorized by Felix Leiter or M directly. Which meant unless the C.I.A. became uncharacteristically effective Bond couldn't do much. Acosta was giving them the big run around and they couldn't do anything about it and whether he was aware that Bond was a British agent was not under the debate, the mole most likely knew which meant that he knew as well. There was enough money in Acosta's pocket to influence a lot of people and the C.I.A. was susceptible to those sorts of things and it wasn't too far off to say that there were a few people in MI6 who could be seduced to such an easy thing to come across as money but Bond knew M wasn't one of those people at all, he was stone cold hardly anything could break his exterior. Which is why, Bond assumed, M trusted Bond so much Bond dealt with his instincts and despite what it seemed like his feelings. If it felt wrong it most likely was and Bond knew that there was a line separating the law from the right thing to do.

Bond looked over his papers on the desk and then heard something shuffle. What he heard he was positive was not from him looking over the papers; Bond didn't ignore the sound but instead played as if he didn't hear it. Instead he looked at the jacket on the bed and took his holster strap off and put it under the jacket and walked into the bathroom. Bond closed the door and looked around the bathroom; he made sure it wasn't locked and walked into the shower. The shower was one of those showers that slide to one side, Bond slid it closed and waited.

No more than a few minutes later the bathroom door opened and someone stepped in. The metal shone in the sun the came from the window. Silently the person stepped inside and pointed a strange looking gun towards the shower. Quickly the person slammed opened the shower to reveal nothing.

The man in the armor stood there for a moment puzzled, he had seen Bond walk into here and heard the shower open and close.

"I didn't know room service went so far as to help their guest shower." Bond said. He had managed to hold himself in the space were the wall and the ceiling came together. The man in armor looked up quickly and Bond could see his reflection in the helmet, before the man in the armor could react Bond had pushed himself into the direction of the man and landed on top of him. The two of them grappled and fought, Bond threw hard punches but and hit the armor as hard as he could sending the man in the armor back into the wall. That was about the end of Bond's successful hits, as soon as the man in the armor rebounded off the wall, he and Bond were matching hits, every punch and kick Bond could throw the man matched with precision and countered with a hit of his own. Bond was taken aback by the force of the hits the armored man attacked with. Another punch came Bond's way and Bond caught his arm and spun him into a headlock.

"Who should I say gave me such good service?" Bond asked the struggled for a moment.

"My name is Wolffe!" The man in the armor said as he broke out of Bond's headlock, and sent bond crashing to the floor. Bond rebounded quickly as he rolled out of the way when Wollfe's heel came crashing down on the spot he laid. Bond was up in the blink of an eye but it wasn't fast enough to escape a kick from Wolffe. The next attack from Wolffe was strange, instead of punching or kicking Bond he threw himself against Bond and they struggled for a long moment before Bond managed to get him off. Bond threw himself on the bed and threw the jacket off the bed and pointed the gun, but before he could get a shot Wolffe threw himself out the window and into the crowd Bond raced to the window and pointed the gun but the crowd was too thick and he couldn't find Wolffe. Bond closed the window and sat on the bed, he put his hand in his pockets and noticed something, or rather didn't notice something, the Q camera was gone. Bond instantly realized that this Wolffe character must have had followed him from the factory, which explained the lack of security. There were a lot of things unsure about this investigation, but one thing was clear. Bond being around made things a lot more interesting.


	14. Bar None

Chapter Fourteen

"Bar None".

Goodhead had not come back for two hours since she left. Felix showed up as well as Gonzalez and Morales, the initial idea was that perhaps she had got caught into the festival, but Bond wasn't a firm believe in things going the right way. Bond had decided not to tell anyone but M about what had happened earlier, and at the time he hadn't had the chance to tell M yet.

"She didn't tell anyone where she was going?" Bond asked, Felix shook his head and sighed.

"This isn't like her I have a bad feeling." Gonzales said, the small man did look extremely worried and Morales seemed deep in thought.

"Reckless…" he muttered. "…what she's doing is reckless, this whole island is crawling with Acosta's men, what if she got caught and is being interrogated?" Morales fussed.

"If they are interrogating her they won't find out any more than they already know from that mole." Bond spat. Felix nodded.

"I wonder what could have happened." Felix added. A long pause issued.

"We can't wait for her any longer…" Bond concluded. "…it's time we contacted M." Bond got up and put his communicator into his ear.

"She's too dangerous." Morales muttered.

"M we're ready for some direction." Bond angrily called, Bond heard M shuffle some papers.

"Fine, what did Goodhead found out at that bar she investigated?" M asked, Bond paused and put the jacket on.

"Goodhead told you where she was going?" Bond asked.

"She mentioned that she was looking into a bar." M relayed with a hint of grumpiness.

"What Bar?" Bond asked, M seemed to be annoyed that Bond was asking so many questions.

"'Bar None' is what she mentioned." M explained.

"Did she mention anything else?" Bond asked.

"Yes…" M sighed. "…the bar is owned by Acosta."

Bond didn't say anything he just started towards the door.

"M we're going to 'Bar None' to find Goodhead, she must have been caught." Bond reported, Felix Morales and Gonzalez got up to follow but Bond turned around quickly.

"I don't want to draw too much attention…" Bond started. "Gonzales, Morales stay here we'll be in touch." Bond was slowly starting the separation process if the mole was watching them he would know for sure.

007 

Bond walked into 'Bar None' and looked around slowly; every person in the bar had the potential to be an enemy, his first glance was to see if he could find Goodhead even though he knew the possibility of her actually being out in the open was slim. His second glance was to see if there was any muscle standing around guarding anything. This proved to be more successful than the last glance; there were a few guys who looked a bit out of place in the bar. They stood near the bathroom and the stage Bond took note of that and continued inside. The mood was excited, more so than Bond assumed, bars like these usually stayed quiet, live music and a couple of rowdy patrons were all they came up. This afternoon was loud a live act was playing and the patrons were up in full force enjoying them, the entire mood was chaotic which was perfect for Bond to get a good look around. Bond pretended to scratch, so he could get a feel on his gun, this probably wasn't the best thing for someone to find on him, so he had to get rid of it for the time being. Bond walked around; Felix was waiting outside for ten minutes so that their entrance wasn't suspicious. Bond trusted Felix a good part of that trust was that Felix carried his gun everywhere and he never abandoned it. It was true that Leiter had gotten more eccentric, he was now a shoot now ask questions later kind of guy, and Bond knew that if he had ever gotten himself in a bind Felix wouldn't be too far behind to shoot him out of it.

Bond wasn't upset about Goodhead, she was a C.I.A. agent she was doing a good her job and Bond knew why she had picked here, it was the best spot to look into and he admired that she was so covert about it. He doubted she had gotten herself in more trouble than she could deal with. This also opened a door for something else, had she gotten herself into some kind of danger it was just another angle for Bond to investigate into and pin on Acosta.

As Bond walked through the crowd he noticed a door that was marked "Do Not Enter" in front of the door was a large man who was guarding it. Chances were that Goodhead had somehow gotten herself on the other side of that door, whether intentionally or not, it was up to Bond to do the same thing. Despite the fact Goodhead was missing Bond knew it would be pointless to go find her and then leave, he had to finish whatever investigation she had felt she needed to start. There was no doubt in Bond's mind that Goodhead had been captured, the question was why had she been captured, there was something someone didn't want her to know and she had been taken away for it, so now it was up to Bond to figure out exactly what she had come across. Another thing Bond was positive about was that Goodhead wasn't dead, that was the last thing anyone would want, another dead C.I.A. agent dead. If anything they would try to take her off the island and get rid of her that way to avoid any of the other investigators getting immediately involved. If Acosta was behind all of this, as Bond thought, he wouldn't be hotheaded enough to just kill her off, especially not now.

Bond walked up to the stage a woman was singing and ruining some song as she screeched along the higher notes and bellowed the lower ones, Bond was in the midst of the greatest of chaos in the bar everyone who was interested in the noise this woman was making was crowded in this area, Bond used these people as cover as he walked onto the stage. He recognized the song, and he walked over to a secondary microphone and mocked the song out as bad as she was and when he was about to be ordered off stage he left with the microphone.

Bond's little debut on stage had caused him to gain a few onlookers, he ignored them. The pace in the bar was still quick, but there was something that seemed out of place. Despite the fact that everyone was having a good time there was a group of men who were having a loud conversation that was frequently punctured by a long outburst of laughter. Bond didn't really find this suspicious but they were loud, louder than the music and Bond didn't find this bar to be one were out of control people stayed, not if Acosta owned it. Unless the out of control people were on Acosta's payroll, Bond suddenly took a liking to these men, they were all drunk and if he was right they worked for Acosta and getting information out of drunken men was easier than getting information out of sober women for Bond. Another thing that sparked interest in Bond was that despite the fact that they were all drunk they all seemed to gravitate around a specific man. Bond got closer without getting too close and heard some of the conversation and Acosta's name came up twice. So all Bond had to do was cut into the conversation, but he needed a catalyst something that could get him into the conversation without too much trouble.

"Tell us about that one again Petrovski!" One of the men blurted. Bond couldn't believe what he had heard, and at first he put it out of his mind, but then someone else said the name, Bond couldn't believe the remarkable luck he had been bestowed and in his mind he silently thanked Goodhead, she had picked out the one bar on this entire island where Petrovski had decided to attend.

Petrovski was one of the best and had been named in the bombing of a train a month back, no one had seen him since then and it was a surprise he had been able to get all the way to the Caribbean without being caught, but then again Acosta was rich and Bond didn't doubt that Petrovski was under Acosta's protection. Petrovski was careful enough t hire big people like Acosta to protect him but he did have a weakness.

Flattery.

Bond walked over tot the table and brought a seat with him and sat down between to men on the opposite side of Petrovski the two men looked uncomfortable and as if they were about to attack him but Petrovski gave a small gesture of disapproval.

"Yes?" Petrovski asked Bond with a loud sneer, Bond smiled and he knew that is smile was vacant, and that was bound to confuse Petrovski.

"My name is Wellington…" Bond said continuing with the smile. "…I'm a big fan of your work." Petrovski glared and then his whole face was overcome with a huge smile.

"So is my mother!" Petrovski exploded into laughter and the rest of the men followed suit, Bond also laughed to keep up, but he made his laugh dumb and without cause.

"I wanted to know if I could employ you for a job." Bond asked, Petrovski seemed to scoff at Bond's offer.

"With what credentials…" Petrovski sneered. "…I only submit my services to people with credentials worthy enough." Petrovski continued.

"I have credentials, very good ones…" Bond countered; it was obvious that flattery wasn't going to work on this man at the time so he had to try something else. "…Julio Acosta." The mere mention of the name seemed to sober everyone up at the table, Petrovski tense up immensely, he leaned over the table and his breath pounded Bond in face as it reeked with the smell of countless drinks.

"What did you say?" Petrovski growled, despite his attitude the man wasn't the least bit intimidating.

"Julio Acosta is a reference of mine…" Bond lied. "…he sent me here to find you." Petrovski bit his top lip and let it roll out.

"Julio Acosta sent you to find me…?" Petrovski repeated. "…here?"

"Yes sir." Bond replied, with a slight move from Petrovski the men next to Bond grabbed him.

"You've got a lot of guts throwing that name around." Petrovski spat.

"He told me to mention him and that you'd accept my offer." Bond went on.

"Oh did he…?" Petrovski picked out some kind of communicator he spoke into it. "…well let's just see about that." He gestured again and the men brought Bond up to his feet and began to take him to the "Do Not Enter" marked door. As they led him away Bond saw Felix walk in, he didn't make anything but eye contact with Felix and that moment passed, Bond was led to the door and the man guarding it waiting for Petrovski.

"Search him." Petrovski sneered. The man grabbed Bond and frisked him roughly and when he got to where Bond had held his gun he found something, the man pulled it out. He held the microphone up to the light.

"I do seminars I like to be prepared." Bond said, the man seemed disgusted and pushed Bond away. The men who held bond backed off and Petrovski alone too Bond inside, he lead him down a long hallway, it was clear to Bond that this bar was a front for some type of operation. Petrovski stopped outside a door.

"We'll ask him together." Petrovski knocked on the door and a voice answer and then he opened it. Sitting behind a white desk was Julio Acosta. Bond smiled as he stepped inside and Acosta looked up and smiled as well.

"This guy said you referred him to me." Petrovski said. Acosta sat up and laughed loudly.

"Did he…?" Acosta asked, Petrovski nodded and Acosta gestured languidly to Bond. "…you mean Mr. James Bond told you that _I_ referred him to you." Acosta clarified with humor, but Petrovski seemed to shrink back in fear from Bond.

"James Bond…" He mumbled.

"That's right…"Acosta went on. "…he's been following me ever since the race in New Mexico, the race he won might I add." Acosta said. Bond smiled.

"It was my first time." Bond said. Acosta nodded and gestured for Bond to sit.

"Than you Petrovski that will be all…" Acosta dismissed him and he left. "…I would be lying if I said it was a pleasure to see you." Acosta said calmly.

"That's too bad, because I've been looking al over for you." Bond said, Acosta smiled, he seemed genuinely unaffected by Bond's presence.

"Your Gun…" Acosta said extending a hand; Bond smiled and nodded taking out the gun he had hidden and laying it on the desk. "…the other one too Mr. Bond." Acosta calmly added. Bond nodded and began to unfasten the one he had recently put on his leg.

"I must be getting predictable." Bond said, Acosta nodded and took the revolver personally and inspected it.

"A revolver on your leg…?" Acosta asked. "…You're braver than I thought." Acosta remarked.

"Well when you live by my rule it isn't brave." Bond answered.

"What rule is that?" Acosta asked curiously.

"No safety is the best safety." Bond answered confidently, Acosta smiled happily.

"Mr. Bond I don't know why you've decided to interest yourself in my affairs but I assure you this will be the end of it." Acosta said, he didn't sound as if he was threatening him but rather as if he was going to convince Bond out of investigating it.

"Where's Goodhead?" Bond asked tersely, Acosta nodded around anticipating the question.

"She's fine; you'll be joining her in a moment as soon as I found something out." Acosta said.

"That is?" Bond asked.

"Paris." Acosta said simply, for a moment Bond did flinch.

"What about her?" Bond asked, again Acosta smiled.

"I already got my answer…" Acosta did something that eerily reminded Bond of M he went back to looking over his papers. "…You can see yourself out Mr. Bond." Acosta said not looking up from his papers, Bond stood up and walked outside.

Bond was led from the outside down a few more large corridors and down a flight of stairs, after going through another door he was lead into a docking bay for boats. Bond was surprised at the size of the port. All of bar had been able to keep this a secret, there were about ten speedboats docked in the bay. A huge iron chain hung over the water and on the chain was Goodhead. Bond gave a salute to her and she rolled her eyes. The men took Bond to a large step ladder and hooked him up next to Goodhead.

"It's good to see you again." Bond said cheerfully, Goodhead jiggled around in the chain.

"Too bad our feet aren't on the ground." She muttered. Bond didn't say anything, they hung there for a long while and it was clear that they planned on lowering Bond and Goodhead into the water, the chain was too heavy to swim with and they would drown.

A moment later Acosta appeared with a flanking of Security behind him and walked through the docking bay, he smiled at Bond and Goodhead and prepared a speedboat. Bond and Goodhead hung as Acosta fixed the boat for its leave.

"I don't suppose you have a plan?" Goodhead asked, Bond looked around and saw a hook near the chain if he could swing the chain over to the hook it could cut through it.

"I'll swing it." Bond said, Bond began to swayback and forward and after a moment Goodhead got the idea and started too, however the move was subtle and Acosta saw them.

"Please Mr. Bond…" Acosta called. "…you look disparate." As soon as Acosta finished what he was saying the door he and Bond had came in from slammed open and Felix Leiter burst through the door, he pointed his gun and instantly started shooting Bond and Goodhead continued swinging as explosions erupted all over the docking bay.

"James!" Leiter yelled.

"Get us down Felix!" Goodhead demanded as she continued to swing, Felix made a slight nod of acknowledgement and continued shooting he made his way through a path of men firing at him. Leiter shot wildly and with reckless abandoned and at some points it even looked like he was enjoying himself, some how Leiter made his way to the controls to the chain, he pressed a button and Goodhead and Bond began to careen towards the water. Felix pressed another button and they stopped.

"No Leiter get us on the ground!" Bond yelled, more gunshots exploded from around the place and Felix returned the fire. Leiter pressed more buttons and the chain swung over to over the ground.

"How the hell do you work this thing?" Leiter yelled, he pressed more buttons and the chain fell to the ground hard, Goodhead yelped but Bond caught his footing and instantly grabbed a gun and tossed it to Goodhead.

"Get some cover!" he yelled, she obeyed and started firing at the men who shot at Felix, meanwhile Bond did the same making his way to Felix.

Acosta watched the chaos with an uninterested eye; he didn't duck or move he just continued to prepare the boat calmly.

Bond yelled at Felix when he took a shot next to Bond's ear, Felix cursed back as a flurry of bullets came their way.

"We need to get Acosta!" Bond yelled, Felix shook his head.

"We need to get ourselves out of here we're out numbered." A bullet exploded behind them just missing them, Bond and Leiter spun around and were faced with ten men carrying guns. A quick flurry of explosions came from their side and each of the ten men hit the ground dead before they touched it. Standing at the side was Goodhead holding an automatic, she frowned.

"This is hopeless we need to get on a boat!" Goodhead demanded. Bond looked around and saw a boat leaving inside it was Acosta. Something came over Bond and he jumped up and ran towards the boat as it departed. Bond shot wildly trying to hit him but couldn't.

"James stop!" Felix yelled his warning but it was too late Bond was still going just narrowly escaping the death that flew around him. Felix stood up and took to shots in Bond's direction to give him cover, and then he felt Goodhead roughly push him over, took her automatic and fire straight ahead hitting an array of attackers. Before the last of the men hit the ground Goodhead was charging towards another group of men, reloading her gun. She dove forward and shot and landed in the middle of the men. Goodhead spun her gun around smacking some of the men to the ground and took precise shots dealing with the rest; she went through one of the men's jackets and pulled out a handgun. Leiter started towards her and her through her automatic to him.

"Use this and cover me!" She ordered, Leiter didn't have a chance to respond when Goodhead was back into the battle shooting and dodging as she made her way closer and closer to a boat. A man came up behind her and tried to pistol whip her but she grabbed his arm and took a shot into his knee and kicked him in the throat and he fell into the water, just as she finished that a man appeared in front of her and she took three quick shots that landed in two in his chest and one in his throat. She dove forward behind a crate and picked up an automatic at her side. _Bond's not the only one who can use a gun_ she thought. She shot again and hit someone else just to see Bond rush in front of her and shoot someone else, all hell had broken loose.

Acosta was already out of the docking bay and Bond had thrown himself onto a boat and was fighting off the crew one by one, from what he could tell Felix and Goodhead were doing a good job in covering him, the speed boat was small and threatened to tip over as more and more people threw themselves onto the boat, Bond fought them off as effectively as he could. He made his way to the ignition and shot the man standing in his way, turned the key and steered the boat heinously out of the docking bay.

A few of the men were catapulted off the boat when Bond recklessly exited the port. Two of them however managed to stay on and attacked Bond as he tried to catch up with Acosta's boat, Bond was too quick though he made short work of one by abruptly stopping the boat and sending him over Bond's head into the water and shooting the other square in the chest. Now all he had to do was catch Acosta that was the simplest job of all.

007 

Goodhead and Leiter fought off as many of the thugs as they could, but when Bond left there was a sudden shift in attention, few of the men decided to stay when Bond made his exit and threw themselves onto boats to chase after him, some of them weren't successful and managed to overload their boats sending them swimming quicker than they could get out of the port. They recognized the issue and suddenly found themselves alone.

"We've got to get to the authorities ask quickly as possible!" Leiter ordered as he threw himself over a railing and ran up the stairs to get back through the bar.

"We don't even know were they're going!" Goodhead yelled, Leiter shook his head.

"Something tells me we'll find out soon enough!" He yelled back and continued on, having no doubt that in the next ten minutes Bond would make his whereabouts, with no doubts, known.

007 

The speedboat roughly crashed on a small wave almost sending Bond into the water, but he kept his footing and his calm as he followed the small speck that had become Acosta's boat. He had no idea where he was leading him, but it really didn't matter all he had to do was catch him and stop him. To his left a large rock blocked his vision to the rest of the island but Bond didn't think much of it, he was approaching it quickly and eventually it'd be out of his sight and he'd have an idea of here he was headed.

It was entirely possible that Acosta was leading Bond to Paris, he had mentioned her, he must have had her somewhere and hopefully that's where he was going. The rock was still blocking his vision, he leaned over trying to see pass it when something caught his eye. If Bond wasn't as quick as he was, he would have been dead. Another speedboat careened towards him, but Bond veered the boat to the left and the water that the other boat splashed hit Bond like a brick but he stayed up, and in the midst of the watery chaos Bond pushed the boat in a small circle as more boats started to obscure his view. Bullets started raining around him again and he found a small spot and steered the boat right through it.

The rock wasn't just a rock it was an entire structure, another docking bay for boats. There were too many boats to continue chasing Acosta; he'd have to lose some of them. Bond steered the boat towards the other docking bay straight into it, the boats behind him followed as he careened forward without any hesitation. Inside the docking bay was just like the one he had just left. Guns fired all around him all pointed at him. He didn't slow down as he came to the dock; instead he just continued to go at the quick speed. When Bond came close enough to the dock he made an abrupt turn and two of the boats that followed him failed to stop quickly enough, crashing into the dock, and one in a fiery explosion. Bond turned out of the docking bay but one of the bullets managed to hit the boat. He wasn't sure where but the boat instantly began to shiver. Bond ignored the violent move and continued to maneuver his boat from the paths of the others. The boat he had wasn't fast enough and he had lost where Acosta was heading, but he knew that if he followed some of the boats that went off to escort him he would find him in no time. Bond turned the boat crazily and two of the boats on his tail misread his direction and crossed into one another. The crash wasn't bad and left the boaters a bit stunned which was all Bond needed he pushed the throttle in his boat forward and jumped off into the others boat and threw the boater out unto his boat and the man was wildly going forward. Bond could see that the fuel tank had been hit, Bond shot at the leak and the boat exploded in a hellish fury. Bond used the new sleeker faster boat to catch up with the boats escorting Acosta, ahead there was another docking bay but he couldn't get into this one, there were just too many boats, to barge in there would be suicide. So he pulled off to the left and kept going forward.

007 

Julio Acosta hated messes, they were unnecessary; he believed that anything absolutely anything could be done without anyone noticing and if they did it could be easily forgotten with the right kind of convincing. James Bond was someone who did all he could to make it hard for Acosta. His operation here on Jamaica had gone relatively unseen for six years now and in one half hour everything was brought to light, all because of James Bond. That was what he was good at however, that was his job and Acosta could not be terribly angry at Bond. All Bond was was an obstacle that was put in front of him so he could over come it. Nothing more than a policeman who couldn't help but be in the wrong place at the wrong time, there was nothing that gave Acosta the impression that James Bond was going to able to stop him. It wasn't his money that assured him, it was Paris.

The boat started to slow as he came up to the dock and Acosta steered it easily into the port. This port was different from the others this one had a full sized jet parked inside. Acosta stepped off the boat just as his escorts came to a stop behind him. He calmly and slowly walked to the staircase that lead to the plane. The stairs lead to a platform and that went into the luxury jet. Someone was rushing up to Acosta on his right, he looked over and rolled his eyes.

"Petrovski you're late." Acosta said, Petrovski ran his hands through his hair nervously and approached slower with a slight hunch. Acosta wasn't particularly fond of Petrovski, he was dirty, disorganized and cowardly, but he was the best and that's what he needed the best money could buy. His price was astronomical you would think he dressed a little better Acosta thought.

"I got caught up…" he muttered. "…once the bullets started flying I had to get out because the police showed up." Acosta scoffed at the word police.

"I told you I have them under control, you worry too much." Acosta said.

"Worrying has kept me alive this long." Petrovski nearly sneered; Acosta gave him a look that silence Petrovski's tongue.

"Get into the jet." Acosta ordered Petrovski gave a look to Acosta when he looked away and boarded the jet. Another man came up to Acosta and Acosta nodded as he came closer.

"Clearance is set up for ten minutes." The man said, Acosta nodded and started up the stairs. When he reached the top something started to get his attention. Acosta paused as he waited to clarify what it was, he looked around to see what the sound was, it was like a low humming, but it was getting louder. Acosta thought of what it could be one by one ideas went through his head and then one idea stood out. Acosta paused and something clicked into his mind.

The left wall of the docking bay exploded into a chaotic disaster, the entire wall imploded with a horrifying groan, and then a loud screech that seemed to last for years. Acosta ducked unsure of what had just happened, and all around him turmoil erupted. The wall continued to come down raining cement. Acosta looked at the in the direction of the ruined wall and to his surprise he saw something positively shocking.

"James Bond…" He muttered.

007 

Driving the speedboat through the wall was not his initial plan but it turned out to be the best of choices. He ducked from the raining debris but that gave him a couple of seconds to get his gun out and get one up on the competition. He jumped out of the boat and started shooting madly at anyone could see, his surprise at the jet parked in the bay was masked by his intent to stay alive. He shot around and tried to get onto the staircase but it was knocked over before he could get to the top. Everywhere he turned there were people shooting at him, and everywhere he turned he shot.

Acosta went inside the jet and looked at the co-pilot.

"How long until we can go?" Acosta asked.

"Eight minutes." The man answered, Acosta nodded and went back outside.

Bond kept firing and had made his way behind some crates bullets came from ever side, he used it as cover, somehow he had to get in the jet. A bullet exploded too near to his face and he sat back, something was coming out of the crate something brownish. He moved from behind the crate and saw a ladder leading up to another level of the docking back, he ran up to it and climbed up the ladder and had a better view of the jet he could see Acosta, all he had to do was shoot.

Before Bond could shoot though Acosta did and Bond threw himself to the ground, if he hadn't Acosta shot would have hit him in the forehead that put a thought threw Bond's head but it wasn't time for that yet he had to stop Acosta.

"Go now." Acosta demanded, the man looked back at him with a unsure face.

"The authorities told us to wait for ten minutes." The man reminded, Acosta stared him down.

"Get us out of here immediately…" Acosta demanded softly. "…or I will."

Bond tasted the substance that came out of the crate and was shocked by what it was; everything was starting to make sense. Bond was suddenly thrust into a more complicated situation; this wasn't just a rich man, he was-

The engine of the jet started up and Bond knew that he was running out of time, he pushed the crate which was heavy, to the edge of the platform then walked as far back away from it as possible, then charged at it. The crate flew through the air for a moment and then crashed on to the plan and all of the substance was spilled all over the top of the jet. Bond saw another crate and did the same thing. The jet started to pull off, Bond saw another and repeated the process but that would be the last crate before the jet was taxiing off and eventually flew off into the sky, he licked what was left of the substance off his finger. Opium. This entire situation had just taken a more drastic turn.

Bond cursed loudly and fought off what was left of the men, again he had missed his chance to save Paris.


	15. The Wait

Chapter Fifteen

The Wait.

It only took forty five minutes to lose Acosta completely, when Felix and Goodhead showed up Bond was in a pickle with the remaining thugs, it didn't take long after that for the Jamaican officials to appear and sort out the situation. They weren't very happy with the amount of attention this, as they called it, 'mishap' had created. None of the officials even dealt with Bond they went straight to Leiter and dealt with him.

They talked to Leiter for five minutes initially and then left him to deal with the wounded and the dead, forty minutes later they came to him when he was talking to Bond to tell Leiter that Acosta's plane was missing. Before Bond could exclaim his objection to the news Leiter did first.

"What the hell do you mean by 'you can't find the plane"?" Leiter sneered, the officer seemed unapologetic as he shrugged his shoulders and gave Leiter a terse brief and left. Bond shook his head in aggravation.

"How do you lose a plane dripping with opium?" Bond asked just as Goodhead came around.

"You don't lose it…" Goodhead started. "…you forget it." She concluded.

"Implying?" Felix asked, she gave him a look of annoyance.

"Implying…" She began to explain. "…that Acosta has convinced them to lose his jet." She finished, Bond nodded and sat up.

"There has to a way to convince them otherwise." Bond said, he heard a bit of desperation in his voice.

"Even if there was by time we got them to divulge Acosta's trajectory he would be too far off to know exactly where he was." Leiter voiced solemnly.

"What can we do then?" Goodhead asked, Leiter bobbed his head as he walked over to the water and splashed it a little.

"Wait." He answered.

As much as Bond didn't want to admit it, Acosta had in fact put them in a position where there was nothing else to do but wait for him to make a mistake or for some fortune to come along, there was no chance that he'd go back to America, he had now been positively identified as a partner with Petrovski, Acosta would run to a country where his involvement with Petrovski didn't matter.

"Mr. Bond…" A police officer started, Bond acknowledged him by looking up. "…Your father demands that you make contact with him immediately." Bond sat confused for a moment.

"Your father?" Leiter said once the officer had left. At that time both Gonzales and Morales came into the dock on a small boat, the disembarked and started towards Bond and Leiter.

"When I heard about the explosions I knew it had to be either of the two of you." Gonzales joked when he came over, the remark did manage to stir up a smirk from Bond.

"What happened?" Morales asked, Leiter shrugged and went to follow Goodhead.

"What do you already know?" Bond asked, Morales sat down on the deck where a hunk of wood had been twisted up in the chaos.

"Not much, you found Acosta and then something happens to lead to al of this" He gestured around.

"We've figured out that Acosta's smuggling Opium from here to America." Bond added, he left out the crate he had found with the Afghani markings on it he felt that that was best left for M to know.

"Opium…" Gonzales said shocked. "…but how?"

"He uses the poppy seed industry as a front…" Bond explained. "…from what I can assume, he uses the poppy seed business to find his source of opium and refine it, but doesn't do it here because of customs, since cargo goes through security I would assume its all shipped here as poppy seeds and then shipped back to America in the same day where its refined into some form of opium and or possibly morphine and then shipped to these ports on the island where they can avoid inspection." Bond explained, Gonzales nodded and Morales looked deep in thought.

"Any ideas to where the Opium goes from there?" Morales explained, the questioned seemed odd to Bond for some reason, if he had known hat why would her keep it secret?

"No idea..." Bond answered; Morales frowned and then got up as Bond did to go back to Leiter and then suddenly thought of a question for them. "…any idea of who my father is?" He asked, Morales looked puzzled but Gonzales was quick to answer.

"M"

007 

There wasn't anything left to do in the dock but wonder where Acosta was, before leaving Bond made a demand that whatever papers and files they found in Acosta's office be sent to his hotel room, the officer he told didn't look as if he intended to relay the message to his superior but Bond had made his point quite clear and he doubted that they would blatantly disregard him, but then again money was a powerful catalyst.

Bond took his C.I.A. counterparts back to his hotel, and when they arrived he took a private call with M.

M was not happy, he didn't try to pretend as if he was pleased with the happenings on the island, he grumpily went over every aspect that he knew and reminded Bond what the said about Bond being more careful than he was in New Mexico.

"…After all the things I said about being more covert and not destroying everything in sight you continued to make it worse by causing _more_ damage and killing _more_ people…" M went on. "…let me remind you that you do have a license to kill 007 but not a license to be some kind of deranged murderer." M blasted Bond harshly his tone kept changing becoming more aggressive as he went along, and then there was a pause where Bond was expected to apologize.

"I did what I felt was best." Bond calmly answered, there was a scoff on the other end, and M seemed to be more upset with Bond than he had been in a while.

"Crashing a speedboat into a dock full of people…?" M grumbled. "…that was the best decision?" M went on.

"There wasn't enough time to do anything else." Bond explained, M wasn't really getting any calmer.

"What did you learn 007?" M dismissed the angry subject to go on to something more concrete, Bond didn't immediately answer he didn't enjoy these kinds of conversations with M.

"I found that the bar was a front for smuggling…" Bond started. "…the port is used as a substitution for ports where his cargo can be investigated, he also ships cargo in the same day to avoid it being investigated every time, that way he can ship the seeds in one hour and when they come back they have been refined into the opium." Bond explained, Bond heard M choke on his words.

"Opium…?" M blurted, Bond was surprised at this reaction.

"Yes, weren't you briefed?" Bond asked confused.

"I was but not anything involving opium!" M sounded livid how could he not be informed about this?

"Acosta's been using his poppy seed business to smuggle opium in and out of America, it hardly seems subtle but no one has suspected anything to do with opium, it gets transported to America as the poppy seed and fortified there and brought back to Jamaica where it's redistributed." Bond explained.

"Where does Acosta get the seeds from?" M asked.

"The lady in the press meeting mentioned genetic engineering." Bond answered, he heard M take a breath.

"So he's making his own poppy seeds?" M asked.

"It's more than likely…" Bond answered. "…The question is where."

"I agree."

"I'm sure if we could hunt down Petrovski we could find out where this facility is…" Bond started. "…I had my opportunity today when he was escaping but I focused on Acosta, lack of foresight." Bond explained.

"You found Petrovski?" M exclaimed, Bond was surprised M didn't seem to know anything.

"Yes, he was hanging around Acosta's bar, had it not been for Goodhead we might not have found him…" Bond felt the need to mention that. "… He led me straight to Acosta, which ends the debate between whether they're working together or not. "Bond ended; he could feel M nodding in approval.

"Good, now that we know that Petrovski is in league with Acosta we can expect him to make an appearance somewhere in the next day, he has a habit of making appearances when entering a new country, it's his way of taunting his followers." M explained

"Good." Bond answered.

"Let's just hope he shares your definition of covertness" M answered sarcastically.

There was an odd pause Bond felt as if there should have been more to say and so did M but the conversation abruptly took to a quick end.

"The Jamaican government, needless to say, hasn't found our presence in their country enjoyable." M started again, Bond shrugged his shoulders.

"They shouldn't be working with a criminal." Bond answered, M grumbled on the other end.

"They deny that Acosta has any bearing on them losing his plane." M stated, in his own voice he gave away what he felt about their statement.

"I'm sure they did their best." Bond answered back sarcastically.

"However I should let you know that the Jamaican's aren't happy at all…" M started again. "…they say they intend on making us held fully accountable for your actions." M concluded, from the way M sounded the threat held more weight than Bond would have admitted.

"What exactly do they mean by that?" Bond asked, he took a glance into the next room and saw Leiter, Goodhead, Morales and Gonzales conversing.

"It's not clear yet but they seem to be set in their ways in putting a monkey wrench into our operation." M finished, Bond frowned.

"Is it something I should worry about?" Bond asked.

"No, I'll deal with it myself; the Jamaican's have a way of overreacting in these proceedings." M explained. As M spoke something came to Bond, something he hadn't thought about in a while.

"Did you ever get the security tapes from my hotel in New Mexico?" Bond asked, there was a long pause and it was clear that M had not.

"No 007 I haven't…" M started. "…in fact I haven't heard anything about it since it was brought up." M answered angrily.

"I'll look into it…" Bond reassured. "…keep me posted on Petrovski."

"Of course and 007…" M started. "..Stay alive." Bond smiled a little and went into the next room.

When Bond came in the conversation stopped all eyes faced him, he decided to do this a certain way.

"M says that for now we'll just have to wait for Petrovski to show up, which shouldn't be too long with our men keeping an eye out for him…" Bond started. "…until then we'll have to devise how we're going to go about bringing both Petrovski and Acosta in." Bond started.

"Any ideas James?" Leiter asked.

"The first is to get all of our evidence in order, these men are extremely careful if we do more as they do we'll have a better insight to how they work." Bond said, Goodhead seemed to really rally behind this idea, for once it seemed as if Bond was deciding to work effectively.

"I agree." She strongly added.

"First, I have positively Goodhead and I have both officially found Petrovski and I have linked him to Acosta, the chip that was found in my car in New Mexico was presumably made by Petrovski which links Acosta indirectly to the kidnapping, that's only if we can prove Petrovski put the chip into my car." Bond said.

"How are you planning to pull that off...?" Leiter asked. "..Forced confession?" Leiter chuckled.

"No, we have an even more effective way…" Bond started. "…the security camera tapes should be show some tampering with my car and that would be all we need." Bond concluded, Leiter chuckled gruffly.

"I was aware we had that type of evidence." Leiter said.

"We do…" Bond tersely answered him. "…Morales what happened to the tape you went to get?" Bond asked, in a smooth fashion all the heads turned to Morales.

"I got it from the hotel and sent it through universal exports to MI6…" Morales explained. "…M hasn't received it yet?" he asked, Bond paused then turned away as he answered.

"No he hasn't…" Bond said. "He hasn't heard anything about it since we last talked about it." Morales frowned and thought for a moment.

"In order to get it to universal exports as fast as possible I had to send it through a field agent of ours, I had to make it to Jamaica, maybe he got caught up in something, I'm sure he got it through." Morales explained.

"Which field agent was this?" Leiter asked concerned, Morales seemed to be regretting his decision.

"Jackson…" Morales answered. "… I saw him as I went back to the hotel and I explained what happened he told me that he'd do me the favor so I could get to Jamaica as soon as possible, I suppose that wasn't the best of decisions." Morales frowned.

"Jackson is one of the best field agents we have, if it hasn't gotten to MI6 by now I would worry about his safety." Goodhead explained. Morales shook his head.

"You think someone could have attacked him…?" Morales asked. "…I was thinking he may have routed to someone in the C.I.A. first, since it is our investigation." Morales explained.

"That would take some time and we haven't been up to date on the C.I.A.'s intelligence since we've been here." Leiter explained.

"Even if we had…"Morales started to explain again. "…it wouldn't be up in the reports until tomorrow or so, the C.I.A. is too busy with the Afghani, Soviet Union deal, we'd have to wait to see or hear anything about it." Morales explained, Bond sat in a chair and thought.

"He's right; we've been inefficient these last few weeks because of that deal." Gonzales chimed in.

"That tape is important to this investigation…" Bond suddenly interrupted, his tone had noticeably changed as well, and he was sterner.

"In the next day or so Mr. Bond this tape won't even be an issue…" Morales explained. "…we'll just have to be a tad bit more patient." Morales tried appease, Bond stood up and nodded his head.

"Lets hope that our patience pays off."


	16. Explosive Business

Chapter Sixteen

Explosive Business

The last four hours of his life had been one of the worst things he had ever had to experience. Over and over he reiterated that he was a behind the scenes kind-of-guy he didn't go out into the battle field, he didn't charge on his horse sword first, he _made_ the swords wasn't that good enough? If the pay wasn't as good as it was Petrovski swore to himself that he would have quit a long time ago. All of this shooting and ducking then running it wasn't what he did, he built the tools that lead up to that but he wasn't supposed to be directly involved.

"_Calm down_" he heard sneer in his head, that's what Acosta kept telling him. He didn't understand how a man could be so calm when there were a thousand bullets whizzing by his head and speedboats crashing through walls and such, it wasn't at all a situation that called for anyone to be calm. Panic was a very appropriate action in a situation like that. Either way he was safe, on this plane, high in the sky away from crashing boats and…his thoughts drifted to inside the bar how he had been tricked.

James Bond. It was one thing to have the C.I.A. on your ass, but it was entirely different to have James Bond looking for you. He had never met him before but he had heard stories, many stories. Bond had a knack for killing all the people he was assigned to investigate. Petrovski had no intention to die, not soon, and not for someone like Acosta. In fact he didn't even like Acosta; he was so calm all the time and conducted himself as if he was better than everyone else, but he was wealthy, more so than Petrovski originally thought. Petrovski had never had a chance to submit his fee to Acosta, and that was a good thing because he was going to charge Acosta three hundred thousand everyday he was required to work with him, but Acosta had offered the sum of a million per day for his services. When Petrovski heard that he nearly flipped, it was perfect the dream job but now he was starting to regret it, this was getting to be too much, hoping from country to country at a moments notice.

Petrovski had another problem with Acosta, and it was with this guy he had never mentioned before. Wolffe, he didn't take to well to this guy, he walked around hardly talking in this big get-up kind of looked some kind of astronaut or something, he didn't treat Petrovski with any decent respect either, they didn't exchange many words but it was clear that they weren't going to be business partners after this thing was through. Petrovski was assigned to make weapons for Acosta, new age type of weapons, effective yet small. He was good at that; he also made explosives, which Acosta quickly made known he had no interest in. These guns he made however were better than most of the explosives he had made. Small guns designed to pack a punch like a larger one. The designs were to be deceptive, the problem with combat was that once your opponent saw your gun he knew the capabilities of it. Petrovski now turned that whole thing around, no one could tell what was going to come out of his guns, He was very proud of them.

The other component to his hiring was that he had to have protection, on his last business call he had acquired something from his old pals in the Soviet Union, and now they wanted it back. However Petrovski really felt as if the suitcase bomb belonged to him. At least this one did, out of the few that were made this one was special he had helped craft it into the perfection it was and when he defected he was sour to have to have left it behind. It was now back in his possession though so all was set right, except that the Soviets were after him and the bomb, he knew how to get them off his back though, he was about to take care of that little problem as soon as they landed. That was if they ever did, Acosta had promised him that the trip would be a short one and they were still in the air.

The jet, as Acosta explained it, was made especially for him it was said to be the fastest jet in the world and could avoid radar, but that was all Acosta said. If that was even true plus he would never go into more detail about where or even who had made this jet for him. Petrovski didn't care anyhow; he could have his secrets it didn't matter to him. He had his own anyway…

007 

When they landed Acosta disembarked before Petrovski could get a chance to say anything to him, however his stooge Wolffe stayed behind to deal with Petrovski. Petrovski found Wolffe in the lounging area sitting down, it was an odd site to see this man sitting in a full suit of armor on the plane, Petrovski approached him quickly.

"I have business in the city; I'll be back in an hour or two." Petrovski told him, for a moment there was nothing, not a word, not a moment and then slowly the helmet looked up to face him.

"We'll be leaving in an hour two…" Wolffe coldly answered.

"Then they'll have to wait up for us." Petrovski shot back with as much venom as he could.

"I have instructions to stay on the jet from Acosta himself, and that's what I intend to do." Wolffe answered, at first the answer came as a blow to Petrovski, he had some business to take care of in the city but he didn't have anyone to support him, or protect him. Petrovski knew Wolffe looked down on him as it was so he just shrugged.

"I guess I'll have to go into the city by myself then." He answered.

"I guess you will." Wolffe answered almost before Petrovski could finish his last sentence. There was a tense moment in which it seem Petrovski would have protested but he didn't instead he just left.

Athens was where they had landed, luckily enough Petrovski had contacts in here, he didn't feel like wasting time he set out as soon as he was cleared from the small airport.

In the further part of town was where Petrovski did business in. An old warehouse that had been condemned twenty years ago and then put on the back burner was not his base of operations. Petrovski had saved up a small fortune one that, even Acosta, would be impressed with. The simple fact however was that he had to spend a fortune to make the products he did. Unlike Acosta Petrovski didn't have an army though, loyal servants weren't his thing anyhow, he felt that once too many people got involved that it became more complicated. How he did his business was simple he had one man he trusted who used his own factory to produce the weapons Petrovski designed, in turn Petrovski kept his name out of all the publicity and paid him a hearty sum. It was as simple as that, once in a while, like today, he had to make sure that things were going smoothly, find out what he needed to keep operations in top shape. The other thing was the situation with the suitcase bomb; he was working on a more deadly version of it, something to make the Soviets version obsolete. They were all ready becoming tired in their race with the Americans for nuclear supremacy, a lot of people were saying that the cold war was coming to an end one way or another someone was going to bow out the race, and Petrovski felt that the Soviets were the ones who were losing. They were balancing too many things as of now if they couldn't get their hands on something profound in the next ten years or appease their people who were becoming tired of the secret police and shadow operations soon then the Soviet Union would undoubtedly collapse upon itself.

It was really no skin off his nose in fact he'd be happy if the Soviet Union was wiped of the face of the planet. For the last five years he had been thoroughly managing to escape them, each time they had gotten closer and closer. It was too much to work with, how could he be effective in working if he had the damn Russians breathing down his neck the whole time. Also, though Petrovski wasn't political, he didn't believe that the Soviet Union was an effective form of government anymore, sure at one point it had seemed as if it would work, but as of late they had been more interested in how they can progress the Cold war rather than end it. The Cold war wasn't helping any person in the world, people were basically prisoners of their own countries, and there were too many guidelines and too many hidden traps. That made work for Petrovski difficult, it was annoying and it had to end.

To a degree, from what Petrovski could tell, Acosta seemed to have the same sentiments and issues with the cold war though he felt that Acosta blamed the Americans for the bulk of the problems. In the war both the superpowers had become blinded by their own plight. What they didn't see was that in the wake of such power came jealousy and anger, the smaller powers wanted the chance and the superpowers preoccupation with their silly arms race had made them miss the fact that there were smaller countries rallying. Those boarder disputes and trade route battles were not just small skirmishes they were more, for every winner in those battles was a new enemy for the United States and the Soviet Union, while they dealt with each other everyone else was planning to deal with them. It was perfect now that the British secret service had decided to lend its hand, of those on the list for doom the British were the first. They were smacked right in the middle of things they're loyalty to the Americans versus their geographical placement, at any time could the British be put right in the midst of a war and with their world policing with people such as James Bond they were spread out too thin to effectively protect themselves. In the end of all of this it seemed that somewhat of a new world order could appear but that was only if they did it right. The people were easily persuaded but they weren't stupid, if Petrovski seemed like a threat to the people then they would rally behind the Soviets and the whole plan would be demolished.

Once Petrovski had the new better version of the suitcase bomb made he would we openly advertise it, all of the Soviets partners would lose faith because they're most powerful weapon had been out done, leaving the soviets alone and in a matter of time they would lose the ability to function and someone would take advantage of that, not Petrovski he wasn't interested, but someone.

That was if this whole thing went right, the involvement of James Bond was unforeseen, Petrovski wasn't sure what Acosta was doing but if MI6 was involved it had to be something big. Too big for his taste obviously he hadn't kept it under cover very well because now they were on not just Acosta but his ass too.

Acosta though was still very calm, even with the involvement of MI6 he hadn't wavered in any way, which was a surprise to Petrovski, before all of this had started Acosta was very worried about the C.I.A. agent finding his factory but after that he had calmed considerably, and the danger had seemed to take a worse turn. When Acosta decided to set a bomb on the tram in New Mexico he had done so with such aloofness it seemed as if he didn't care if it worked or not. There was certainly something that had happened in between that time that Petrovski hadn't been let in on. Though he had not signed up t be a direct component in Acosta's idea this bit of revelation had him upset, he should be alerted, especially now that he had come face to face with James Bond. Petrovski cringed, there had been days where he had wondered what James Bond looked like, he thought about this man a lot he was dangerous, that was why no one ever bothered to go through the British government for anything everyone was careful to keep their big operations small looking. But now he had come face to face with the man. They both new what each other looked like now not that that gave Petrovski any kind of advantage over Bond, if he was lucky he'd never see James Bond for the rest of his life because he was sure as hell not going to go look for Bond, no amount of money was enough for him to commit suicide.

The warehouse was large and to any other person it would take a very long time to navigate their way inside it but Petrovski knew his way by heart. It was all protocol now, he walked inside the creepy building, and indeed the inside was a bit intimidating. The inside was only lit by the light of the sun which wasn't much because all of the windows were covered with dust which kept the sun's light at a minimum. Some of the old structures, which had been weathered down quite a bit in the last two decades, still stood and their shadows bestowed an almost satanic presence in the warehouse, you wouldn't make them out quite well and they stood there, and in the brief but usable sunlight, that shifted during the day, the shadows moved across the walls slowly and with odd precision to the path that was usable in the warehouse. Once Petrovski had been here when a group of young men came through being nosey, they had gotten lost and been inside for hours and after noon the shadows started to move and the boys were frightened, they screamed and with some added effects by Petrovski they did all the could to escape, eventually two of them jumping out of a window to escape the 'demons'.

The entire place was coming down slowly, Petrovski was aware of that; soon enough there wouldn't be enough credibility for the building for him to stay there. The floor was coming apart, there was a specific path he had to follow to get where he wanted, it was tedious but it kept people like the roaming children from finding his operations, not that if anyone found it they'd be skilled enough to escape before they were killed, but why take the chance anyhow?

The warehouse was three floors only but it was wide it took over a large portion of the street it was on, the other thing was the basement, where Petrovski worked out of, was absolutely the biggest single room he had ever seen. When he had found it he was surprise that they hadn't decided to reuse this building for something, but it was to his benefit anyway. _"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth'_ Petrovski thought.

He came to a large hole in the floor and looked into it, for a moment he had puzzled himself to how to get down, but he remembered there was a series of storage boxes that lead up to the hole. Petrovski jumped down onto a box and then stepped down the rest. On the bottom floor he had a choice to walk into the light where the sun shone in from a small hole in the wall, or the looming darkness. Without any hesitation Petrovski walked into the darkness, he began to whistle a song he had heard some time ago, just to make sure that his 'friend' knew he was coming. The song was theirs now, they had used it many times to alert each other of their presence, from the dark abyss ahead he heard a man whistle the same tune.

"Petrovski finally, my life was beginning to get boring." The man said, Petrovski turned the corner and saw a man standing over a conveyer belt set aglow in deep orange light as he looked over some metallic equipment. The man was dressed in large black outfit, bulky and tacky as Petrovski remembered thinking the first time he saw him. This man though was now a core component of his life, everything Petrovski manufactured was done through this one man and this one man only.

"My life is getting too excited for my own good…" Petrovski muttered. "…My new client has got a head for enemies." Petrovski continued. The man smiled and nodded.

"The C.I.A. giving you more problems than you can handle?" The man chuckled; Petrovski kept a serious face and picked a gun off the conveyer.

"It's worse…" Petrovski sighed. "…MI6 has decided to get them selves involved." Petrovski finished.

"MI6 again…" The man said shocked. "…they're getting to be a pain in everyone's ass, if they keep policing the world, there will be global unrest." The man said.

"You know how they are Ramos…" Petrovski shrugged. "…What have you got for me?" Petrovski asked. Ramos looked around as if he didn't already know what was there.

"Everything you asked for..." Ramos answered. "The guns weren't a problem but the projectiles were a lot harder than we thought they may be." Ramos explained, Petrovski smiled and picked up one of the weapons.

"Wonderful, wonderful…" He repeated. "…what's the range on these projectiles?" Petrovski asked, Ramos sighed and picked one up as well.

"About thirty…" Ramos answered, Petrovski turned to him with a look of surprise.

"_Feet?"_ Petrovski asked, Ramos nodded and put the weapon down.

"Just about…" Ramos said. "…of course I haven't been able to really test it out but from what I did get down I've found out thirty feet was the max and they do stick to surfaces." Ramos explained, Petrovski nodded happily.

"Detonation time?" Petrovski asked, Ramos shook his head and crossed behind Petrovski.

"I know I told you I couldn't rig it to the arm band device last time but I did manage to get that done." Ramos explained.

"Wonderful…" Petrovski explained. "…so I can detonate them whenever?" Petrovski asked.

"No, I made a safety if you don't blow them up for a minute they'll go off themselves, but there is a timer if you use that then you can time how long the bombs have, other than that though." Ramos said.

"Absolutely perfect Ramos…" Petrovski put on a armband that went to elbow joint, moved his arm around to check how comfortable it was and checked the many buttons on it.

"How many did you make?" Petrovski asked, Ramos pointed to the one he had on.

"Two…" Ramos said. "…it's too good to mass produce." Ramos smiled.

"That's because your so efficient Ramos, you've never let me down." Petrovski praised him, Ramos continued with his smile.

"No, it's because your designs are so ingenious…" Ramos started. "…you seem to out do yourself all the time." Ramos praised him back.

"You flatter me too much…" Petrovski laughed.

"If the American's or the Soviets still had you this war would be over." Ramos said, his comment seemed to sober Petrovski.

"Soon it will be…" Petrovski answered. "…How much of this stuff can I actually take today?" Petrovski asked, Ramos scratched his head and looked around.

"The two armbands are yours…" He pointed. "…those three guns too, the others need to stay here for some testing." Ramos explained, there was a long pause as the situation shifted.

"What about the bomb?" Petrovski asked, Ramos screwed his face up in a disappointed way.

"I really wish I could have your help when testing that thing out…" Ramos explained. "…it's the most complicated thing I've seen in years; with the soviets made it they must have had a lot of times on their hands." Ramos said.

"They started before World war two…" Petrovski explained. "…they were going to use it to clear up business disagreements" Petrovski said.

"But what happened?" Ramos asked.

"But when World War Two came along and Hitler betrayed Stalin, he insisted that production be stopped so that they could deliver one to Hitler personally and have no trace of any production, you know deny, deny, deny…" Petrovski explained. "…the plan was to try to fake a new alliance and give him a suitcase with 28,836,999.89 rubles, but really give him one of the bombs as Stalin put it 'Дуньте он отсутствующе с мягкосердечием'" Petrovski said, Ramos laughed.

"Blow him away with kindness…" Ramos chuckled. "…What happened after the war?" Ramos asked, Petrovski shrugged.

"Production ended, whatever was left of the suitcase bombs was locked up and tested on until I got my hands on one. Considering that I helped with the testing of the newer ones making them more effective I believe I am entitled to the bomb." Petrovski explained.

"And here we are refining the Soviet Union's creation…" Ramos said. "…much like the British to the American's" Ramos went on, Petrovski was sitting up straight, alert, he didn't say anything.

"Did you hear that?" Petrovski asked, he moved to the way he entered the basement, he looked around very alert. The fear began to set in slowly as he became more positive that someone besides Ramos and himself.

"I didn't hear anything, it's just your-" Ramos started but Petrovski waved his hand and hushed him harshly. Petrovski couldn't really figure out if it was inside now, or what it was exactly. Petrovski walked back towards Ramos to check the small area behind the conveyer belt, he walked through a small passageway and investigated silently looking around making sure he heard everything.

The passage lead to a different room where most of the completed equipment was held, most of the equipment that was finished only was used for prototypes for better more efficient weapons and were never used. They collected dust and this room seemed like a relic itself as its walls were covered with moss and a misty air. Petrovski looked over some of the older equipment and some memories came to him. Though they were weapons they were his and each one had a distinct story behind them. Usually the equipment he made was not for sale; Acosta was the only person who insisted that Petrovski lend him his expertise. The guns he was taking from here today were in fact made especially for Acosta, what Acosta wanted with them was beyond Petrovski but Acosta was paying him a separate sum from his initial services. It came to Petrovski's worry now, why would Acosta spend all this money? What could possibly be important enough to spend a fortune over?

_"What did it matter?"_ Petrovski thought, he was getting the money anyway so there was no use in _trying_ to find something wrong with Acosta or what he was doing.

Petrovski started back down the passage to Ramos, whatever it was he had heard was obviously nothing, and he had managed to get himself worked up over nothing yet again. As he came to the end of the passage he heard Ramos' voice.

"I don't know…" His voice shivered out. "…I haven't seen him in years." He concluded. Petrovski listened closely as he came to the end of the passage and then he heard another voice.

"We will ask you one more time and then we will be impatient…" A new slimier harsher voice said. "…Where is Petrovski?" the sound of his own voice coming out of the harsh voice, it was then that he recognized the accent, Russian without a doubt, the Russians had followed him here somehow.

It was always when Petrovski thought he had gotten away did the Soviet Union manage to track him down he had to get away. Usually there were a lot of questions involved, sometimes pain but the Soviets tried to keep a low profile with Petrovski. Petrovski looked around the corner to see who was questioning Ramos.

Petrovski's heart fell to his ankles, the men he saw were not who usually came after him, those men were small and feeble looking, negotiators because the Soviets wanted Petrovski to just walk back to the U.S.S.R. with the bomb he had stolen, like a fool so they could shoot him in the back and then blame his death on some disgruntle costumer. These men though he _recognized _them, they were K.G.B. agents. Petrovski felt anger grow inside of him; the Soviets must have been really upset after Petrovski's last encounter with them. Petrovski had hurt one of their men in a minor explosion, so now they've sent their hit men out after Petrovski.

"I told you I don't know where he is." Ramos answered, the lead man out of the three walked over to Ramos, who they had seated on the conveyer belt, and placed his hand on Ramos' shoulder.

"Mr. Ramos I have a very reliable source who pointed me straight to this _exact_ warehouse and told me the _exact_ time that Petrovski would be here." The man said, his accent was different from the others, it was Russian but there was something else…

"You shouldn't trust everything you hear." Ramos said. The lead man nodded but the other men seemed anxious they looked around and they were getting closer to where Petrovski was hiding.

"I agree, but is it a coincidence that all this different equipment is here?" the man asked, Ramos looked around and shrugged.

"I don't know what to tell you." Ramos answered, the lead man smiled.

"I'll give you ten seconds to tell me…"The man said. "…and then I'll have to resort to the least favorable part of my job." The man said.

Petrovski was beginning to panic, who could have told the K.G.B. all this information about where he was going to be? No one knew where he was going except Ramos.

"Like I said-" Ramos started, but before he could answer the lead man pulled out a gun and shot Ramos in the chest, his body flew over the conveyer belt and onto the floor. Petrovski held his breath as Ramos hit the ground dead. _"Shit…!" _he thought. "_…shit, shit, shit!"_

"Ten…" The lead man said. "…He's in here so find him." The man said, the other two men began to check the area and Petrovski made his was back in to the backroom and stood there, there was only one way out of the warehouse, and this backroom didn't lead to any of them. Petrovski hated this, first Bond and now this; there was no way out of this without confrontation. This was perfect, it wasn't even the ill prepared negotiators, these guys were trained to kill and they didn't give a damn. Petrovski looked around and saw all the weapons, at least he had two advantages, these guns would work and he had the jump on them. Petrovski went through the weapons he saw, he knew them how they worked, what they did. This wasn't like anything they had seen before and now Petrovski would show them.

"There's a path down here!" one of the men called out, Petrovski instantly noticed the thick Russian accent, the puzzling question though was why they were speaking English. Petrovski began to panic and picked up a gun that had been made years ago. He had to be careful there were still two others, if he took a shot he'd alert the other two. Petrovski went over to the entrance and stood next to the wall directly beside it. He was good at this gun thing; he wasn't sure how to hold one of these tings correctly.

The K.G.B. officer glided into the room and looked around but before he could see Petrovski Petrovski had slammed the gun into his the back of his head and the man went towards the ground but Petrovski did his best to guide his fall to be a silent one.

_"Now what?"_ Petrovski thought, he didn't know what was supposed to come next, there was still two of them somehow he had to get them separated.

"Я ы здесь, вы увидеть это" Petrovski called in Russian, his response came obviously from the other man that hadn't shot Ramos, Petrovski met the man quickly in the path and placed the gun close to his stomach and shot, there was a muffled explosion and the man bit down on his own hand when Petrovski shoved into his mouth when he fired. His own Soviet Union training was coming back to him a little, now there was one.

At this point Petrovski realized what was different about the lead man, his voice, his accent. It was American, Petrovski couldn't be sure but it sounded as if this was an American who knew Russian not someone born and raised in the U.S.S.R. However that statement didn't make sense, how could an American be leading up a pair of K.G.B. officers? What did this mean for Petrovski? What kind of shit had he gotten himself into now?

Petrovski had the surprise element set up. Jump out from the path take as many shots as he could and kill him then get the hell out of here. This was the moment where most people would have felt slightly empowered, he had the upper hand and he had done it all by himself but Petrovski didn't feel empowered, he was angered and scared he wanted to get out of this situation, this was more of Acosta's element. Sneaking around and calmly looking his danger brazenly in the face, just narrowly missing his own death. Petrovski wasn't made for this, yet for some reason he kept getting into these situations.

_"On three…"_ He told himself.

One…

He inched close to the exit and to his final confrontation, hopefully, he had the gun ready for firing and his heart was pounding furiously, his brow was beginning to sweat.

Two…

Bang!

The explosion shocked the hell out of Petrovski, it wasn't his gun and the bullet had landed an inch an away from his head. Petrovski spun around and saw the man he had 'knocked out' standing with the gun pointed at him. Shock, absolute shock took over Petrovski's body, but when the man took another shot Petrovski had instinctively thrown himself on the floor and took a shot at him.

Three.

The other man appeared at the entrance to the passage and Petrovski rolled his way towards him taking two terribly aimed shots at the American man. They were on him faster than he could ever have imagined. By the time he was his feet there were two guns firing at him. One of Petrovski's shot managed to hit the purely Russian man in the knee. The man hit the ground and he took one shot and the bullet grazed Petrovski shoulder. Petrovski yelled as loud as he could and fell to the floor again. The American man walked over angrily.

"Mr. Petrovski you have been a pain in our ass for too long" The man said, Petrovski shot up missing the man completely but the ceiling ricocheted and hit the American man and he fell over. Petrovski was up before he knew it and tried to run pass the man but he threw a kick that landed Petrovski on the floor. Petrovski's arm hit the arm band he had on, and something shot out in blinding speed, Petrovski ran as fast as he could out the conveyer belt room and into up the boxes, as bullets blazed around him. The sun's light had dimmed and now a subfusc tone had engulfed the warehouse. Bullets flew all around Petrovski and he ran as fast as he could but a bullet flew so close to his face that he toppled over and landed on the armband. Petrovski felt something jerk from the armband and something shoot out. The American man wasn't too far behind, Petrovski struggled up but the man was on him, it was too late the one shot this man would take now would kill Petrovski. The man knew it, Petrovski knew it, and the man aimed and took the shot.

The loud click echoed through out the entire warehouse and for a second they just stared at each other in disbelief but before long Petrovski had gotten up and ran out the warehouse. His running had began to burn his legs, his muscles felt as if they were going to explode, his blood boiled and his mind raced. The sky was spinning above him and the concrete was seemingly uneven and everything suddenly became a burst of sound, and everything took a yellow and orange like glow, Petrovski felt as if his body had flown through the air and landed on the ground. His panic had taken him over; the American man would be on him in a second and he'd be dead. No, something _had_ happen, the sound was an explosion, the entire warehouse was on fire everything was coming apart. Fire was in the air, the world was in fire. No…the armband had released bombs and they had exploded, it was less than a minute but if it had been any longer Petrovski might not have been alive to see it happen.

His initial reaction was to rejoice, get up and scream at the top of his lungs about how alive he was but then the weight of the situation came on him like a ton of bricks. The explosion was huge, the authorities would be here and there were three dead K.G.B. agents inside, rejoicing about being alive could very well get him killed. He got up, his body was aching from the fear, the running and the blast, but at this time getting back to Acosta was the most important thing of all. He had to disappear like he always did, into the cloud fire he had created he would vanish not to be seen again until he decided it was safe.


	17. Reunited

Chapter Seventeen

Reunited.

Carelessness was Petrovski's best skill, there was no one else who could swear himself to covertness and then blow up and entire building in the most violent way he could possibly think of. That's what Wolffe thought, he had been standing there inside the jet waiting patiently for this fool to arrive when he heard the deepest grumble, at first he thought nothing of it but when the entire ground shook and the jet seemed as if it was going to topple over Wolffe calmly walked outside, and to his surprise there was a huge fire cloud stretching to the sky and then black smoke. Instantly Wolffe knew it was Petrovski, and knew what he had to do and set out to find him.

Wolffe was not a hired hit man, he was not a bounty hunter, he knew Acosta well and decided to help him, his identity was a secret and here was Petrovski endangering that. It took a total of four hours to find Petrovski inside a small niche of a building trying not to be spotted by the local police. Petrovski angered Wolffe.

"Dear fucking god..!" Petrovski yelled when Wolffe approached him, he jumped and glared at Wolffe. "…you scared the living daylights out of me." Petrovski explained.

"What did you do?" Wolffe asked, Petrovski looked stunned as if he was expecting Wolffe to ask him how he was.

"I was attacked by three K.G.B. officers." Petrovski explained.

"…and?" Wolffe asked.

"And I got my ass out of there." Petrovski answered angrily.

"Did you kill them?" Wolffe asked.

"What does that matter…?" Petrovski began to rebel, Wolffe didn't move. "…hopefully I did I don't see how anyone could survive a blast like that." Petrovski explained. There was a pause and Wolffe turned away.

"You did a good job…" Wolffe muttered. "…we're going."

Getting back to the airport was another battle, the authorities had the entire place shut down, they were everywhere and Petrovski could not be seen. The situation Petrovski had created was too much to deal with. The two of them had to walk through backstreets and through gridlocked traffic.

When they were walking a question came to Wolffe's mind.

"Did you get the guns?" He asked, Again Petrovski duplicated the look he had made earlier, out of complete surprise.

"There were two, but I only got one." Petrovski explained. Wolffe, though his face was completely hidden, seemed very disapproving.

"Give it to me…" Wolffe demanded, he figured there would be some objection so he added: "…now" there was a moment of hesitation but Petrovski handed over the gun Wolffe examined it for a moment. It looked simple enough to work.

A lot of things could have went wrong with Wolffe and Petrovski together in broad daylight, but in their luck no one was focused on them but rather the situation that had just unfolded. When the two of them reached the airport they had to get admittance, guards were everywhere. Wolffe was self assured though he told Petrovski to stay out of sight, he was gone for about five minutes and returned to reveal the guards had moved out of their way.

Wolffe and Petrovski went back to the jet without any confrontation, Wolffe was in first and as Petrovski worked his way to the interior Wolffe was coming back out.

"Acosta is at the base, he told me to take you and Lady Paris there." Wolffe said, Petrovski seemed shocked at what Wolffe just said, by now six hours had gone by since the explosion and Acosta wasn't entrusting any decisions to him.

"Why does he trust you so much?" Petrovski asked, there was a long and cold silence before Wolffe answered.

"Because…" He started. "…I don't endanger operation by destroying everything I see." There was so much malice and some personal anger in his voice that Petrovski didn't react to the answer.

"Is he going to be there?" Petrovski asked, Wolffe continued down the ramp ignoring Petrovski's question.

"Get Lady Paris and take her to the cab…" Wolffe answered, he continued down the ramp and didn't bother to say anymore, and when he got to the ground he crossed under the jet out of sight.

Petrovski went inside and inside the lounge was Paris, she looked amazingly beautiful but also amazingly upset, Petrovski had only met her once and that was on the plane ride coming to Athens, she didn't say anything to him but she gave him a look that sent chills into his spine. He would sometimes take glances at her but each time she either moved out of his sight or was giving him that look, in a way he was afraid of her. Petrovski stood in front of her hoping she would get the point by him just being there but when she didn't react he realized he was going to have to have interaction with her.

"We're leaving…" Petrovski muttered, for a moment there was absolute silence, outside seemed to be sucked into the vacuum of Paris' silence; slowly she turned her face to him.

"I don't take order from pathetic lackeys." Paris answered; her voice sent another chill into his body.

"We have to leave for your safety there's a cab waiting for you…" Petrovski explained, again Paris ignored Petrovski. "…Acosta demands it." He added, at that it seemed as if she shrunk in her anger and was succumbing to the name Acosta. Paris looked Petrovski directly in the eye and sent a glare that said much harsher things that any words could say and then she stood and breezed by Petrovski and to the ramp.

Petrovski followed behind her faithfully; as long as he did what he had to do he was going to be paid. They walked down the ramp and across to the cab that was waiting for them, Paris laid low while Paris stood up straight and glided to the cab, Petrovski scooted ahead of her and opened the door.

"After you." He sarcastically said but she didn't even acknowledge that he had spoken and entered the cab, Petrovski went to get in when the cab sped off and sent him crashing to the ground, the car came an inch from running over his leg and recklessly crashed through the gate and away from the airport. The commotion caught Wolffe's eye, he didn't panic he just went back into the jet.

007 

The door to the cab swung madly as the car itself chaotically went from left to right and back. Paris yelped something as she was bumped on to the side of the car and hitting the ceiling. The car calmed down and Paris had a mind to just scream at the top of her lunge but in front of her driving was a familiar sight.

"Mr. Stock!" Paris rejoiced, Bond gave a brief look back into the back seat to see Paris smiling at the sight of him.

"Close the door…" He ordered, and she leaned over and closed the door, with that the chaos subdued a little. "…and my name is Bond, James Bond." Bond confessed, Paris' cold silence made an appearance.

"_The_ James Bond, British agent James Bond?" Paris asked.

"Yes, the C.I.A. got MI6 involved…" Bond explained. "…after the explosion sent of alerts I rushed here and found that Acosta's jet was parked in that airport." Bond went on.

"But what's your plan?" Paris asked suddenly worried.

"I'm trying to get away…" Bond answered. "…you should just worrying about holding on."

The car raced on the road, when Bond had tracked Acosta to Athens he was surprised to see he was commanding a small army, the security was beyond what could be seen and what Bond did see was a legion of loyalist to protect Acosta's assets. He drove like a mad man from the start he wasn't going to allow Acosta's men to catch up to him. Suddenly Bond hit the brake and Paris yelled, already ahead of them were three cars, a few men stuck their heads out the window with automatic weapons pointed at Bond and Paris. Bond threw the car into reverse and started to drive backwards, the swung the car so it was facing forward and kicked it into the appropriate gear. A large gate separated the road with the taxi road for the planes. Bond took no pause in driving through the gate and onto the taxi.

Bond stole a glance into the rearview mirror and saw that the three cars were still following and on top of that there were two other cars coming around the turn to join them, bullets started to fly and Bond did all he could to maneuver on the taxi road and lose the cars. He randomly looked behind him to check on Paris who was at times yelping as loud as she could but overall just hanging on as much as she could.

When Bond had arrived he did his best to look around to have an exit plan, he knew that the airport had been built on top of a small mountain. On this small mountain a road had been built spiraling down, all the way to the base of the small mountain which lead into a rural road. Acosta's men were everywhere on the main roads so it seemed the rural path was the only way out, he knew that Acosta's men wouldn't stop following him, so he had to be quick and disappear.

A bullet hit the left side view mirror and Bond made a sharp turn right, his car crashed through another gate and started careening down the slope, the car bumped hard and it almost flipped over but Bond kept as much control as he could. The car landed on the road and Bond turned left to stay on the road. The men followed relentlessly and Bond was out of space to try and dodge the bullets, he floored the gas as much as he could and after a moment he noticed he was starting to lose the cars behind him. Bond couldn't help but letting the smirk on his face grow. He looked back at Paris, who was sitting stunned in the backseat.

"Are you alright?" Bond asked, she stared wide eyed for a moment and then her face changed emotions all together, fear completely enveloped her face. Bond was confused at first but then he turned back to the road to see another squad of cars in front of him. Unable to hit the brake Bond had to steer off the road, the car made an awful groaning sound as the car again went onto a rocky slope, this time was different though, Bond foot was still on the acceleration and he knew that if a shift in speed occurred the car could flip over. Bond gritted his teeth as he was forced to wait to gain control of the car again.

"James!" Paris yelled in fear, Bond yelled back at her to try to stay down, but his voice was drowned out even to him by the immense chaos around them. A loud crash and the car lifted off the ground and threatened to turn over but the butt of the car set back down harshly. Bond looked in the, slightly broken, rear view mirror took a glance at Paris who was trying to collect herself and then he saw it, another car was careening towards them and its path was to hit the back of the car, directly into Paris according to Bond's calculations.

"Paris, get down!" Bond ordered harshly. With much force he slammed the car into reverse and hit the gas. The car did nothing but stall at first but Bond kept his foot on the gas, little by little it began to move backwards. Trying to speed up the process Bond slammed his back against the chair over and over. The car jerked once, jerked twice and then finally it jolted back going up the hill a little, just as the car slammed into the front of the car and sent it spinning. Bond's body was thrown like a doll but he kept his grip on the steering wheel, when his eyes focused again he was just in time to see his car was sliding back off the side of the road. Dazed and confused Bond thought of what to do and instinctively he hit the brakes. The quick slam of the pedal to the floor indicated no pressure which in turn meant no brakes. His mouth moved to curse but nothing was said, his head was pounding and blood was starting to drip down his face. In the back seat Paris was yelling, her screams were rattling his brain.

"It's ok, just hold on…" Bond yelled. "…I'm going to get you out of this!" he demanded to himself. The car began to lean over the edge; Bond was confused what was there to do? The car still inched closer and closer to the end of the road and finally Bond thought of something, in one rough move he pulled up the lever for the emergency break. The car jerked horribly and the car did stop inches away from falling over but with the jerk Paris' body surged forward and propelled the car the extra distance, sending it over the edge.

Bond grit his teeth and knew there was nothing more he could do to stop the car, so he might as well try and drive it down the side of the hill. Bond hit the acceleration and turned the car so it drove parallel down the hill. Behind them the other cars had made it full circle around the bend and were starting to shoot at them again. One of the shots hit the back tire of the car and the car made an erratic turn into a small forest of trees. One after one the car hit the trees sending terrible shocks into the car and knocking Bond and Paris in all different directions, bumping them against the steel making of the car. The sound of snapping tree limbs and Paris' yelling was filling Bond's mind, he turned the wheel as much as he could trying to regain as much control as he could, luckily for them a clearing was coming, maybe then he could drive the car, he was thinking of what he had scouted out earlier, what was down there? Where was the nearest escape route? But every time he started to remember Paris' yelling distracted him, she was creaming as loud as she could and at first Bond ignored her but then he looked back at her.

It felt as if he was going deaf he could see her but his mind was in such disarray he couldn't make out anything she was saying, he squinted to show his confusion and Paris paused and then pointed outside the front window and her words were clear from the way she was saying it.

"Look out!" Bond turned and saw that beyond the clearing was another road, which he couldn't steer into, but at the bottom of that hill Bond cold clearly see a suit of armor looking up at the falling car waiting for them to get close enough.

"Bastard!" Bond muttered in pure rage, he slammed on the gas, if he was going to get out of this he was going to have to kill Wolffe, the clearing came and the car soared over the road and onto the hill careening right towards Wolffe. However fast the car was coming in didn't seem to concern Wolffe at all he stood there as the car came closer, and when it was possible to look Bond directly into the eyes he pulled out a gun. Bond had seen this type of gun before; it resembled the one Wolffe used in New Mexico, the one they thought Petrovski had been making. If it was that would mean it packed the same punch the other gun did and in this car there was no way Wolffe could miss…

"Get down!" Bond demanded his voice clearly sounding over all the chaos, Paris recognized fear in the scream, and she threw herself as far down as she could, Bond followed her actions and managed to get his shoulder under the steering wheel.

There was an initial explosion that Bond recognized as the gun going off and then there was the most horrible hellish roar that came from the car. Bond felt the entire car quake and his shoulders slammed into the steering wheel, pain engulfed his entire body and he cried out in pain. Bond's head came out from under the steering wheel and to his surprise the entire top of the car was gone, the car was moving on the sheer fact that it was moving downhill. He looked behind him and saw Paris was fine, he looked back at Wolffe and the car was still on its way towards him. Then the car jumped and Wolffe threw himself out the way. The car hit the dirt and Bond's head smacked the steering wheel with such force that his entire neck made a snapping sound. Bond's sight was gone, he could hear Paris yelling his name and the car crashing and not before long that too was gone.

007 

From somewhere a rumble could be heard. Distant sounding but yet it was clear it was very, very close. It rumbled again, deep, not much of a sound as it was a feeling. A low vibration set deep within his stomach and it continued up into his stomach and into chest cascading upward into his head and shaking his brain. Death was a lot different than he had imagined, it wasn't very bright or eventful, in fact it was similar to doing nothing, with your eyes closed. Wait, he could feel his eyes, they were moving. You can't move your eyes if your dead. Could you?

Pain was certainly a sensation you couldn't feel in death, otherwise what was different from being alive? It took a great deal of concentration to find his eyes with his mind, but after a lot of searching he did. Now he had to open them, he tried once and he managed to move his leg. He tried twice and felt something touch his arm, third time is a charm though and his eyes opened. Though his eyes were open they refused to focus, everything was one blur that made his head tighten, with a new control over his body he moves his hands over his eyes to shield him from the light, slowly his eyes started to focus and he could see, though there wasn't much to see.

A grey room, drab nothing in it, no wait, a sink. Bond was lying on a bed; there was a pillow under him. He sat up. There was a chair sitting next to him, in it sat a man, one he recognized.

"Mr. Bond you're awake…" Acosta started. "…I was beginning to worry." Acosta said, he leaned forward and looked Bond in the eyes.

"No, no, it'll take more than that to do me in." Bond said rubbing his head, he looked around the room was small, it was essentially a cell.

"Good to know…" Acosta said sarcastically. "…I took the liberty of bandaging your head, it was pretty nasty cut." Acosta said, Bond felt the bandages; they were tight, done very well, it could be said it was done with care.

"Well thank you…" Bond started. "…but I figure you treat all your prisoners this way." Bond answered.

"No Mr. Bond I'm afraid there has been a mess of a mistake…" Acosta said. "…what happened today at the airport was ridiculous…" Acosta went on; he moved his hands lazily as he talked.

"Of course." Bond muttered.

"…I in no way shape or form condone the type of reckless and dangerous behavior some of my men used in trying to apprehend Lady Paris…" Acosta said. "…You can't just appear and take people Mr. Bond, its degrading and unethical." Acosta finished. Bond placed his hands on his knees.

"I apologize; I was taking my cue from someone I met in New Mexico." Bond answered; Acosta didn't seem genuinely interested in Bond's comment.

"I'm sure…" he answered. "…Well Mr. Bond that brings me to my question for you." Acosta started, he pushed the chair closer to the bed Bond was sitting on.

"Sure, since it seems I'll be here for a while." Bond answered standing up, he watched Acosta for any sign of fear but the man didn't even seem to realize Bond had gotten up.

"Why have you decided to interest yourself in my doings?" Acosta asked, he did know Bond had gotten up and he moved his Body to face Bond as Bond walked behind him.

"It's my job I was asked to look into some of your business because you seemed to be hiding something." Bond answered truthfully; Acosta nodded and looked Bond directly in the eye again.

"Am I hiding something…?" Acosta asked, Bond stroked his chin for a moment not saying anything, it was obvious that he was trying to figure out and appropriate answer.

"You're not 'hiding' anything..." Bond started. "…you planned not to 'hide' anything, instead you do it all with permission, only you pay for your permission which is still illegal." Bond explained, another pause as Acosta took his time to respond.

"Mr. Bond I'd be safe to say your trust in your government is strong, right?" Acosta asked.

"Yes." Bond answered.

"What if I told you that my trust in my own Government was the opposite?" Acosta went on. There was a pause as Bond thought for a second.

"Then I'd tell you to come to England." Bond sarcastically answered. Acosta enjoyed the comment and laughed.

"As nice as that would be I can't say I trust England that much either…" Acosta started. "…this race of arms between the American's and the Soviet Union has gone on long enough. It's starting to wear on the people, even me." Acosta explained.

"How so?" Bond asked. Acosta nodded.

"Without getting in too much detail and business jargon I'll explain…" Acosta said. "…the freedoms of the United States are now limited and few. The powers that be are too consumed with their progression in this great race and in turn business men like me suffer." Acosta explained. Bond nodded and sat back on the bed and looked at Acosta.

"You don't seem to be doing too bad to me…" Bond answered. "…you've got the money to country hop, buy a lavish estate and hire a high priced terrorist to do business with…" Bond continued, at the mention of terrorist Acosta's mood seem to change, he frowned.

"You must be referring to Petrovski." Acosta growled. Bond nodded and shrugged his shoulders.

"Unless you hired some other terrorist."

"Petrovski is not what he seems, he's not my type f person I despise that man." Acosta confessed.

"Then why waste your money to deal with him?" Bond asked, his curiosity was growing Acosta was a lot more complicated than he had imagined.

"Petrovski is a pawn the much grander plan…" Acosta said.

"There is a grand plan after all?" Bond asked, Acosta smiled at Bond and bit his bottom lip a little.

"Yes Mr. Bond and though I'm sure you'd like to know what it is…" Acosta stood up. "…it doesn't concern you." Acosta finished.

"Oh of course not…" Bond shrugged. "…I'm not important enough to be in the 'grand plan.'" Bond answered.

"No Mr. Bond…" Acosta agreed. "…but you are important enough to not be apart of it." He finished.

"I'm honored." Bond mumbled. Acosta smiled and stood at the door and gestured at Bond.

"Well Mr. Bond its almost dinner time and I want you and lady Paris to be my guest, I've sent someone to get you a suit and someone will escort you when the time comes…" Acosta explained. "…until then Mr. Bond I bid you farewell."

When Acosta left there was dead silence, Bond sat for a while longer on the bed half expecting someone to come in and try and kill him, but he felt in his instincts that Acosta's plan wasn't to kill him, in fact it could have been far worse.

007 

As promised someone did show up with a suit for Bond to wear and he dressed up quickly and waited to be escorted to the dinner. When the man came to escort Bond he was surprised to see that he wasn't a large guard that was armed instead it was a feeble looking man who looked like his only function was to serve. The other surprising thing was that Bond had vastly underestimated the size of the facility he was being held in. The escorting was compromised of a long walk down the initial hallway where the cells were kept and then up a flight of stairs to the more 'main' area. This area was large and the ceiling was amazingly high, that area lead to the elevator which took them two flights up into a large dining hall. The hall was lavish and could have been a medium size restaurant, and at the other end were two doors that lead to an even more lavish but smaller dining area. Sitting at a table was Acosta and Paris in a dazzling red dress; she barely looked up at Bond when he entered.

"Mr. Bond…!" Acosta exclaimed. "…It's good to see you again, please, please sit down." Acosta insisted, Bond took a seat on the opposite end of Acosta while Paris sat between them on the left.

"This is quite the fortress you've got here." Bond commented. Acosta nodded.

"I try…" Acosta said. "…now that we're all here we're ready." Acosta said.

"I agree." Paris muttered. As if on cue a waiter appeared and stood in front of the table.

"Lady Paris will have Tequila straight up and Mr. Bond a Vodka martini…" Acosta started. "…oh shaken not stirred, correct?" Acosta asked.

"Correct." Bond answered, Acosta nodded at the man.

"…and I will have Bourbon on the rocks please." Acosta finished, the waiter bowed slightly and walked out. Acosta smiled at his guest and there was an awkward moment of silence.

"So have you changed your mind on opening up about your 'grand plan'?" Bond asked, Acosta smiled and nodded at Bond.

"Mr. Bond, this dinner is not the boring business rhetoric that consumes my life usually…" Acosta explained. "…its so you, Lady Paris and I can learn a little more about each other." Acosta finished.

"Oh well I hate sharing first…" Bond jested.

"Well Mr. Bond I hope you wouldn't mind if I shared my knowledge of you..." Acosta said.

"I don't see why not."

"Well James Bond, British secret service under the rank of 00 agent, 007 to be exact, you fall directly under the orders of M, license to kill …" Acosta stopped to think. "…but that's not that personal." Acosta said, suddenly Bond felt his stomach tighten and his heart jump a little.

"No of course it isn't" Bond said, Paris could tell something was wrong her head slightly turned when Bond answered.

"… You have a scar on your back, and you were once married…" Acosta added. Bond body suddenly felt ridged, he took a hard gulp and kept his eyes on Acosta.

"Once…" Bond muttered.

"…a Ms. Teresa de Vinci, how you met her I do not know, but you set out to stop Blofeld, some way or another, the two of you met up again, but that's when your business and your personal life collided…" Acosta explained, he at times looked Bond in his eyes but mostly looked at Paris.

"Julio…" Paris tried to stop him, though Bond's poker face was on it was still obvious how uncomfortable he felt.

"…After stopping Blofeld and leaving him for dead Tracy and Mr. Bond got married but on the same day Blofeld murdered his wife." Acosta finished, looked at Bond. There wasn't any malice on Acosta's part when he told the story but Bond felt angered that he had to hear the story again. As if he didn't know it. A long pause followed and the waiter came back in with the drinks and placed them in front of their respective drinkers. Bond took a sip of his Martini.

"Well that's all in the past…" Bond mustered up the composure to say. "…what about you Mr. Acosta?" Bond asked. Acosta smiled.

"I'm just a simple man Mr. Bond, I own a business and I hope to thrive." Acosta answered, Bond stared at Acosta for a long moment, Acosta gestured to Paris.

"Lady Paris here has a similar uninteresting story..." Acosta mentioned. Bond looked at Paris who refused to make eye contact with either of the two men. "…don't you Lady Paris?" Acosta asked.

"You would know better than I would…" There was a distinct pause that dripped of venomous malice from Paris only further enhanced by her addition of: "…Julio."

The sheer and silent anger from Paris filled the room and began to choke Julio and Bond of words to say, but Acosta regained his composure.

"Born into a middle class family, went to law school but settled down." Acosta informed him.

"A simple life." Bond said.

"Very." Acosta added.

"Not like yours." Bond challenged. Acosta cocked an eyebrow up and smiled.

"What do you mean Mr. Bond?" Acosta asked.

"Well you went to medical school but decided to drop out and pursue the rest of your college in botany." Bond relayed, Bond noticed the slightest twitch in Acosta face.

"You're quite right Mr. Bond…" Acosta said. "…I couldn't find what I wanted to do, but after I left I realized all I really wanted to do was make money." Acosta started laughing a bit and his laughter filled the room as Bond and Paris watched silently.

"So you don't use any of your skills in medicine or botany to help your business now." Another twitch but Acosta smiled, he knew the game Bond was playing.

"I do my best; I really don't do the business itself but supervise they efforts of my loyal workers." Acosta answered.

"With all your money I'm sure they are very loyal." Bond answered.

"It's not the money that keeps my workers loyal." Acosta corrected.

"Then it's the fear." Bond added, Paris made a slight movement which seemed to be uncomfortable.

"Sure Mr. Bond." Acosta ignored.

"So what's your plan for me…?" Bond asked. "…keep me here and then kill me?" Bond asked.

"Of course not…" Acosta said. "… I don't want you dead Mr. Bond but rather out of my head without any complications." Acosta explained.

"Understandable, you are a busy man." Bond added.

"Right, so I'm going to keep you here long enough for MI6 to worry about you and then I will convince them that you are divulging valuable secrets in return for your…" Acosta thought. "…safety."

"Cunning."

"More so than you think after getting the information from my reliable source inside your little operation, I will hand you over only with the promise that I have complete amnesty from the entire course of events that have unfolded."

"What makes you think I'm that important to MI6?" Bond asked.

"I don't, but the information that I'll have will be more than enough to convince the C.I.A. and MI6 to do anything to have you back."

"Very cunning" Bond dryly responded.

The waiter returned and walked over to Acosta and whispered something in his ear, Acosta listen intently, although at times he did look rather bored, and then he frowned. He looked at Paris and then at Bond.

"Sometimes I regret that I don't enjoy being so busy…" Acosta said. "…but I must go and attend to some important business in a different country." He stood up.

"I understand…" Bond said."…when duty calls you must obey." Bond added.

"You would know a lot about that…" Acosta countered. There was nothing else between Bond and Acosta whatever sentiment that was being brewed between the two of them in the last ten minutes was gone. "…When you are all done the escorts will take you back to your rooms" Acosta added and then he left. Paris didn't speak and when the escorts returned she didn't acknowledge them for five minutes.

"I'm not hungry…" she said. "…I rather just go back to my room." She politely demanded. The escort obeyed and took her away.

Bond sat in his chair thinking but when nothing came up he also opted to go back to his 'room' with no intentions to actually go back inside.

007 

Bond made sure he took in every sight he saw as he was being led back into the cell the referred to as a room. Obviously there was a larger part of this place he was in just beyond a staircase in the main area. Bond took the elevator back down to the floor where his cell was and let the guards escort him all the way to the cell next to his before slamming his elbow into the escort on his left and spinning around slamming his fist into the other ones face. Both of the small men hit the ground like bricks Bond searched them for anything useful and found nothing on them. Bond quietly walked by his cell and down the hall keeping his back on the far wall. Ahead of him was a turn, he approached it quietly and looked around it. To his surprise there were two heavily armed men. They carried large guns and stalked around, however they weren't facing him, If he could get behind one of the men and get a gun…

Bond walked slowly and quietly behind one of the men and snuck up close to him before wrapping his arm around his neck and twisting. The twist did nothing and the man fought back in silence as Bond cut off his air, the struggle seemed to last forever as Bond tried to subdue the man, but then the man slammed his foot on the ground hard and very loud causing the other man to look. Bond twisted the man's arm around and threw him to the ground before the other man could point the gun, Bond attempted to start towards the other man but the first man kicked his legs from under him and knocked him on the floor. Besides the dizzying vibration that went off in Bond's head there was also a interesting sensation in his ear.

"Stop…!" The man on the floor yelled. "…Acosta wants him alive." The man said, the other man growled at Bond.

"Get up!" He yelled, Bond started up and when he was standing the men roughly searched him and then one of the men pushed Bond onto the wall. When bond hit the wall he saw something lying on the ground. It was his communicator which was the sensation he felt, the communicator falling out his ear. One of the men pulled out a walkie talkie, put it close to his face and just when he was about to talk the communicator made a small explosion. The little explosion surprised the men giving Bond the opportunity to kick the gun out of one of the men's hands and pushing the other down. Bond dived to the floor and picked up the gun which he instantly identified as aRPK-74, one of the men was trying to get up but he used the gun to smack the man hard across the head and knock him out. The other man was up and started to aim but Bond knew that if either of them discharged then that would blow his cover, so he tossed his gun as hard as he could and it collided roughly into the man's face and he fell hard on the ground. Bond looked around waiting for someone else to overhear the commotion and investigate but no one did. Bond made his way to the men and dragged them into a small niche, he inspected then and found they also were carrying AK-74s, both the guns were large but Bond took one of each and the ammo out of the other and placed it in his pocket, Bond was blind to wear he was going but at least he had a gun now.

007 

Down the hall there was another elevator that revealed there was a floor below the floor Bond was on. Bond looked around and found a crow bar on a crate; Bond picked it up and walked back over to the elevator. He pressed the button and it started to come to the floor he was on, Bond hid next to the door where no one inside the elevator could see him, when the doors opened he waited but there was no one on it. Bond walked into the elevator and pressed a button that would lead to the floor directly below him. Bond walked out the elevator and waited to hear it go down. When he was sure it was off the floor he took the crow bar and wedged the door opened. Bond looked at the distance between him and the elevator top and jumped the distance. He landed on the elevator and waited as it stopped on the floor. To his surprise someone was getting on, quickly Bond opened the hatch on top and observed the man get in. The elevator started up again and Bond started to place himself to jump inside the elevator. He looked up and saw how close eh was to the next floor and threw himself inside feet first smacking the man on the side and onto the wall of the elevator, there wasn't much of a fight when Bond smacked the man over the face with the gun the man hit the floor like a ton of bricks.

Bond pressed himself onto the inside of the elevator as the door opened on the higher floor, Bond looked outside and there was no one there. Bond pressed the next floor and the door closed, he waited a little before pressing the emergency stop. Bond took the guns and placed them around his shoulders and jumped up to the opening and pulled his way up. On the top of the elevator Bond pulled himself on the thick wire that pulled the elevator. Bond climbed the rest of the way and when he reached the door for the next floor he balanced himself on the tiny ledge and placed his ear on the door to listen. He didn't hear anything so he opened the door with the crowbar. Bond was now back on the main floor where the dining hall was. He quickly made his way behind a flight of red velvet steps. He waited there a moment figuring what to do next, he looked around and saw nothing. So he ran towards the door he noticed before, it was extremely suspicious. The entire floor was draped in red velvet and gold, with the exception of the doors which were a dingy grey color. Bond could see through the small windows in the door that there were men inside the new space, Bond waited until they moved out of his range of vision assuming that he was out of theirs. He walked inside and the new area was a very different sight than the previous room. It was dark and a very ugly metallic color that set an eerie glow about it. Bond stalked in further keeping the men he saw in eyesight and staying just short of theirs, Bond crouched down and made his way to the far side of the room and kept his back on the wall. For ten feet the wall continued and then gave way to a railing that was over a different floor, Bond looked over the railing and on the new floor there was a series of long tables, the room below was the entire size of the floor. On the tables were sheets of papers, Bond couldn't see what they were from where he was but he could see a little further was a ladder leading down. A guard came around the corner directly across from Bond and Bond was forced to lie on the ground. The distance between them was considerable, but the guard could spot Bond if he was standing. Being on the ground Bond felt that the metallic floor was warm, usually there was a cold feel but the warmth gave him the inclination that there could be some kind of machine or furnace around. The guard went back around the corner and Bond stood up and ran to the ladder and slid down it. He hit the ground light and threw himself under one of the tables to avoid another guard, he watched the guard as he slowly walked around lazily taking glances and yawning, Bond got form under the table and got behind the guard and hit him over the head with the gun and caught him as he fell and dragged him under a table. Bond took the time to look over the papers and that's when he realized that they were blueprints. He couldn't really decipher what exactly it was but he could see that it was some kind of large building. Possibly something Acosta was building, he looked at the blueprints again and saw a date that was issued and noticed it was three years old, so possibly this thing had already been built.

Bond went to the other table and looked at the blueprints there. This one was different it sketched out something that, from what Bond could tell, used florescent lights and served somewhat as an incubator , the scale it was drawn on was larger than any incubator Bond had ever heard of before. A slight sound caught his attention and he ducked behind one of the tables, the guard was gone in a flash and from him appearing Bond noticed a large viewing wall with something illuminated on it. Bond carefully made his way over to it and looked at it, it was a replica of the first blueprint he saw, but the difference was that it was shown in more detail and on the side the words "NEW MEXICO" were illuminated, Bond took note of the octagonal design and looked at the dashboard and tried to make out what exactly what this thing was, but to no avail. However with him knowing the location and the large structures design Bond felt that was good enough to report. Bond looked around again, his sneaking around was almost through he just needed to make one more stop.

007 

Bond doubted that Acosta would leave Paris inside a cell like his. Bond also made the assumption that since one of the floors was more glamorous than the others that she was being held somewhere near there. Bond made his way back to the different world of a room and noticed the large staircase that lead up to another floor. At the top of the staircase he couldn't see anything, it got very dark suddenly. Bond frowned, if Paris was up there, there was probably a lot of security to ensure that what had happened at the airport didn't happen again. It was time yet to make a scene until he could find Paris and clearly define a way out, maybe not in that order.

Instead of going up the steps Bond walked away, near the elevator was another door that lead down a different passage. The passage was a dark one and lead to a new door. Bond paused at the door and put his ear to it. On the other side he could hear a lot of commotion, but the commotion seemed far away as if some kind of work being done. Slowly Bond opened the door and peeked to see what was happening, like the other room he had entered this one was high up, Bond walked the rest of the way through and was standing on a platform over a large hanger like area. The floor below was a lot for different trucks and cars and just like Jamaica was filled with crates, but aside from crates there were huge barrels that were marked C17H19NO3 he recognized the chemical formula but couldn't place it with all the things going on in his mind. There were a lot of people on the floor below and it was obvious that all the shipping was done here. The trucks had to go out from somewhere so it must be somewhere near here or there must been some kind of path that lead to the outside. Unless Acosta was shipping his goods to another hide out of his the path must lead to a main road. Recalling what he could of his last escape attempt Bond frowned, this one would have to be more fluent and beneficial. There were large trucks Bond noticed. Not armored but they looked very powerful. At the front of the large floor was a colossal metal sheet that served as a gate, much like a common garage door. That was the way out Bond could feel it, but there had to be a way to open it. He inched closer on the platform to look around more and saw that on the far left wall there was a small box that was marked with the colors yellow and black. Whatever it was it did something and that was what mattered.

Bond didn't bother to waste any more time and went back through the hallway and into the beautiful room, there were men in the hall now and Bond didn't have the patience to wait for them to leave, he took out one of the cartridges from one of his guns and swiftly engaged the three men. All three went for there guns and Bond was quick to fight them hand to hand and using the cartridge to his two of the men over the head and knocking them out and kicking the last man in the stomach and punching him out of the fight. Bond jogged up the staircase quickly and entered the darkness. To his surprise the staircase lead to yet another door which he opened without thinking twice.

On the other side the lavishness of the previous continued, red and gold draped the new hallway, but it was obvious that this room was being used for a living space and not for some type of operation. Bond returned the cartridge back into the gun and walked on. Not before long he found a door which Bond was sure was Paris' room. The problem was that there was no security, even the few people Bond had come into contact with didn't reflect Acosta's resources, in all ways, to Bond, this was too easy. He knocked on the door and waited for a guard to answer but instead he heard something else.

"Go away!" Paris' voiced called out from the other side, Bond knocked again this time a little more forceful and on the other side of the door he could hear Paris shuffling from where she was and coming closer to the door. Two locks clicked before the door came open, before Paris could lash out with her sharp tongue Bond held her mouth and gave her a reassuring look.

"Good evening" Bond whispered, Paris was in shock to see him there.

"James!" She exclaimed, he smiled and before Bond could notice the two had engaged in a small kiss. The kiss, however small it was, was something different for Bond; all at once he felt it was protocol, odd and the right thing to do. For a moment he was he was taken aback but then he gained his edge again.

"I think I found a way out but you'll have to be careful if you want to get pass all the security." He explained.

"Most of the guards are helping with the shipments that are coming in and out today…" She explained. "... I over heard Julio saying this is the biggest shipment yet." She explained herself.

"I think I saw the shipping dock…" Bond said. "…It's the only way out I could find." Bond answered.

"That's where everyone is." Paris muttered.

"We'll be fine…" Bond said, Paris gave him a look obviously referring to his last rescue attempt. "…I'll be careful." Bond added.

The two of them snuck back into the large room, when they arrived they could hear the elevator going down, Bond was quick to worry. He handed Paris one of the guns and went to the elevator door and took out the crow bar and wedged it open.

"What are you doing?" Paris asked, Bond turned to her briefly.

"If someone came by this floor they would have seen those guards over there…" Bond pointed to the men he had defeated a little earlier. "…So I'm going to make a larger distraction." He signaled for her to pass him the gun and she did so. Bond leaned forward and pressed the gun onto the thick wire.

"James…" Paris called nervously. He looked at her with a smile.

"It's going to get a little chaotic…" Bond admitted. "…stay by me." He didn't take his eyes off of her and started to shoot, the wire snapped and the elevator started to plummet to the ground, and then there was a short pause followed by a monstrous crash that shook the entire ground and Bond ran over to Paris and grabbed her arm and ran her back to the platform.

007 

The shipping dock was in chaos!

Acosta's men were running around trying to protect the assets and identify the cause of the crash. The elevator served as not only a distraction but also kept guards from counting to show up. Even though there were a lot of guards already it didn't mean that he needed more trouble. Before walking full out into the platform Bond looked at Paris and took out the hand gun.

"Do you know how to use one of these…?" he asked, Paris gave him a frightened look. Bond took the safety off and handed it to her. "…you see anyone you pull this, six shots then pull this and put one of these in. Got it?" He asked, she looked confused at the gun but then nodded.

"Where are you going!" She asked frightened. He started onto the platform.

"To get a car."

Bond raced on to the platform and took a few shots down below to excite the chaos, he found the ladder and tossed himself onto it and slid down to the floor. He hit the ground and spun the gun and smacked a guard to the ground before throwing himself to the ground while shooting some more into the crowd. Bond ran as fast as he could to the nearest truck with the back open. He threw himself into it and behind some of the metal containers that were also marked with the chemical formula C17H19NO3 took out the cartridge and put in a new one. He looked out and shot randomly, when he did he saw that the guards were now on to him and directing there fire towards him, the bullets were getting more precise, so Bond turned and gritted his teeth as he push the containers with his feet until some fell off the truck and rolled into his advancing aggressors, he took that opportunity to jump out the back and to the drivers seat, he slung the door open as hard as he could, he pointed the gun at the man trying to start the truck.

"Move over to the passenger seat…!" Bond demanded, the man threw his hands up and obeyed Bond jumped into the truck and turned it on. "…open that door!" He demanded some more, the man obeyed and Bond pushed him out and slammed the truck into reverse driving backwards. If Bond was hitting anyone he didn't care he drove chaotically back to the platform as bullets flew around him and on to the truck. With a hard crash the truck hit the platform and Bond shot out his window and fired to cover himself.

In a flash he was standing outside the truck shooting at every person he saw, he stole a glance above him and saw Paris waiting in fear.

"Come down!" Bond yelled over the many explosions, at first she looked shock but she quickly ran down the platform to the ladder and started to climb down. Bond offered as much cover fire as he could with the automatic he was carrying, Paris climbed down quickly and didn't take a shot when people ere shooting at her.

"James!" Paris exclaimed, James waved her over and took a shot behind her hitting a man in the arm.

"Get in the passengers seat!" Bond yelled, she ran past him and Bond fired a few more times before going back into the truck. As Paris got into the truck Bond started driving off, Paris gripped her seat and seat and put on her seatbelt. Ahead of them, where the giant gate was, a blockade was already being set up, there was no way to get pass the blockade and the gate without destroying the truck and having what happened last time.

"Hold on!" Bond ordered, he spun the well heinously and the truck lifted up on two wheels for a moment, and then turned around. On the opposite side of the platform there was another large gate but this one was lifted, and beyond that another gate that was down. There wasn't a barricade there and if it was an exit then he could crash through it and escape. Bond careened in the direction and didn't bother to worry about any of the people in the way. He looked at Paris, who was terrified, and felt a sinking feeling. There was something about her, not the situation, which was making him feel as if things were hopeless. Bond brought his focus back to the situation at hand. It was long before he passed under the gate, at the exact moment something seemed very off, an instinct of his went off and before he could place it an explosion rocked the entire truck and sent it careening on its side.

Before the truck hit the side Bond was ejected out of the door which was slammed opened. Bond slid across the ground for a moment and then he was standing up trying to piece together had happened. Paris was most likely fine the truck had fallen on the driver's side, Bond went towards the truck and then he stopped. There was an explosion, explosion didn't just happen. Bond quickly whipped out the hand gun and pointed ahead of him being cautious.

"Paris…!" Bond yelled. "...no matter what stay in the truck until I say so!" Bond walked on. Something flashed from the corner of his eyes, Bond quickly turned to see what it was.

Petrovski.

Without even thinking Bond ran towards him, catching Petrovski was important, Bond doubted that Petrovski would allow Bond and Paris to leave her, not alive at least. Before Bond could get to Petrovski a different explosion surprised Bond. The large gate fell down and blocked him from the other section of the floor where all the other guards were and the truck. Bond didn't worry about it, when the time came he'd figure out what to do with that. Bond stalked around for a moment and tried to place where Petrovski was. As far as he knew Petrovski wasn't a man of immense skill, all Bond had to do was find him and shoot him, simple and easy. That's his job, and as deranged as it seemed, he enjoyed it.

007 

Petrovski hadn't killed him on the first shot. Petrovski had messed up something too simple. He cursed in his head, how could he _not _have killed Bond? Now he had to face him head on. If he stayed hidden maybe he could sneak up on him and shoot him. It didn't make any sense this was James, goddamn, Bond.

This had gone too far, Petrovski was being paid to make weapons for Acosta not baby sit this woman or fight James Bond, this would cost extra. This entire encounter would be tallied and added to the amount he was being paid. If Petrovski could get passed the K.G.B, who always played with as many dirty tricks as possible, then he could deal with a stiff British agent.

Petrovski could see Bond, he had a good vantage point to Bond's side, it was a matter of waiting for Bond to get into a position where he couldn't turn fast enough to counter Petrovski.

Petrovski had brought along the armband Ramos had made, that should be enough to take care of Bond, after all he was just one man. Petrovski watched Bond's movements carefully, from the way his feet were positioned to how he kept his gun ready. Everything about Bond screamed with recklessness, how he had become such a reputable pain in the ass. How was this man who had, more or less, brought about the end of S.P.E.C.T.R.E? From everything that had just happened, Bond's capture and failed escape attempt, he didn't seem highly competent.

As of now Petrovski was proving to be habitual in getting himself into trouble that he was not being paid for, James Bond was not a person he'd thought he'd meet, let alone confront, when he signed up to help Acosta. About a year ago, Petrovski remembered, someone asked him to go legit. They said that if he made a legal business in the United States that the U.S. would protect him from the soviets who were after him. Petrovski never believed that and now with the revelation that at least one American was working for the K.G.B. it seems even more unbelievable that the American's were capable of stopping the Russians.

It suddenly occurred to him that if there was anyone who could discourage the soviets from chasing him it was Bond. There was trend lately of the Soviet Union abandoning certain plans because it seemed as if the British Secret service was getting involved, it could only mean that they were planning something that they didn't want to risk having MI6 find out about and in turn ruin it. As for now though this could provide some cover, if Bond could be kept alive and the Soviets could be confused to think that Bond was after Petrovski then they might just abandon looking for him.

This was great! All of this was turning out in his favor, all he had to do was just lose Bond, even aide in his escape and then use Acosta's situation to create a fake investigation against himself and he could be home free. As he figured the American's and the British were only interested in getting Acosta and that the only reason they were bothering with Petrovski was because he was a direct link. He had to ensure that that link become broken, or even better useless, that way he could slip away unnoticed. If Bond knew exactly where Acosta was then he was no longer an essential a part of the investigation. From there Bond was Acosta's problem, he's always so calm in the first place, he'd probably be more than happy to see Bond show up in that little base of his in the states.

Petrovski stepped out of his hiding space a little and kept the arm band aimed at Bond. Petrovski stalked a little trying to figure out how to get Bond to escape and himself at the same time.

"Mr. Bond…" Petrovski said non-threateningly, Bond spun around with the gun directly at Petrovski. Petrovski kept his body ready to run but also try to give off the feeling that he meant no harm to Bond.

"Mr. Petrovski." Bond answered back; he didn't let the gun relax at all.

"I have a plan for us." Petrovski said, Bond raised an eyebrow and for a moment looked beyond Petrovski but then back to his gaze.

"I wasn't aware there was an 'us' but go on." Bond said, Petrovski let the armband fall a little to his side so Bond could see there was no hostility from Petrovski, Bond watched the arm go down but didn't relax his own arm.

"I don't want to get into an altercation with you…" Petrovski started. "…there's no reason for two grown men to get into a fight over something neither of us could care less about." Petrovski explained.

"I didn't get that impression when you blew up my truck." Bond answered, Petrovski made an expression that Bond couldn't really read.

"That was a rash decision…" Petrovski explained. "…I'm offering you the opportunity to walk out of here without any trouble." Petrovski offered.

"Go on." Bond simply answered.

"There's switch behind you that opens the gates, you'll come out with me and I'll walk you right out of here without incident." Petrovski announced; Bond gave a slight glare and turned slightly backwards to see the switch.

"What do you gain from all of this?" Bond asked.

"You leave I avoid any trouble, I'm not getting paid to kill you…" Petrovski explained. "…It would really be a waste of my time." Petrovski continued. Bond let his arm relax to his side.

"Fine." Bond answered. _'Yes!"_ Petrovski exclaimed in his head, he had done it!

"Good, the gate behind you has some trucks; we'll get in one of those and get out of here." Petrovski explained.

"What about Paris?" Bond asked, Petrovski frowned he had forgotten to factor her in. She didn't like him as it was but if he could give her what she wanted she may be compelled to put that behind her.

"We'll get her she can do and go wherever she pleases." Petrovski said. Bond nodded and started towards the switch.

Petrovski couldn't believe that this was happening, it was working all he had to do was get out of here. Petrovski turned to the gate and was prepared to keep the guards at bay; he suddenly remembered that he hadn't differentiated the different switches.

"Bond…" Petrovski said turning back to face him, but as he said it he realized Bond was gone. Petrovski looked around in complete fear, somehow he had disappeared. Petrovski put up the armband again if this was some type of trick Petrovski wasn't going to let it work. He ran towards the switch and when he reached it, it seemed as if it hadn't been disrupted at all. He turned to look for Bond but he was staring down the barrel of a gun.

"I think I changed my mind." Bond muttered sarcastically; for once in a long time Petrovski had become completely enraged.

"What are you doing?" Petrovski asked.

"I'm getting out of here and getting you out of my hair." Bond explained; Petrovski glared at Bond.

"So you're just going to kill me?" Petrovski asked; Bond didn't think about his answer.

"No, I'm going to leave you here to deal with Acosta…" He pointed the gun down at Petrovski's foot but before he could shoot Petrovski swung his arm and hit Bond in the face with the arm band. Bond's body hit the ground and slid across the floor his gun landed not to far from him. Petrovski went to open the gate but Bond had grabbed his gun and made a sloppy shot at Petrovski's hand. Despite the fact that he missed Petrovski jumped back and pointed the armband at Bond. Before Bond could take another shot something shot out of the armband, for a moment Bond thought as if he was shot but the thing that shot out landed near Bond. The small round metallic ball spun around quickly, for some reason Bond got a bad feeling about the little thing and jumped up quickly. As Bond made it to his feet he saw Petrovski touch a panel on his armband and a moment later an explosion erupted behind him, Bond's body flew through the air and landed harshly back on to the ground. Again he dropped his gun and it landed directly in front him, as he grabbed for it Petrovski kicked it away and kicked him in the face.

_"Damn it!"_ Petrovski cursed in his mind, everything was going well at first and now this, Bond was so stupid! He had everything put in front of him on a platter and now he had ruined the whole thing. Petrovski attempted to shoot at Bond again but Bond kicked his hand away and the bomb went astray. Bond kicked the legs from under Petrovski and he hit the floor. Bond was up in a flash and he pointed the gun at Petrovski but he kicked Bond in the stomach and also got up. The two of them engaged in a hand to hand fight for a moment and somehow Bond managed to rip the armband off of Petrovski's arm, distracted by the armband coming off Bond examined the armband for a moment giving Petrovski the chance to kick him away. Using this new opportunity Petrovski ran towards the gate, Bond at first went to chase but saw there was a switch Bond was afraid that if Petrovski managed to open the gate guards might flood in. He had to stop him, but how?

Petrovski ran to the gate, he had to get out of here, this entire plan had worked out the very opposite of how he intended it to. But he'd be damned if he wouldn't get the hell out of here before Bond pulled one of his famous: blow everything to smithereens and then ask questions. Acosta had left him here with Bond; he was sometimes such an asshole. If Acosta wanted Bond detained he should have left Wolffe here to deal with this type of mess! Petrovski threw himself to the wall and onto the switch; he looked back and saw Bond grappling with the armband. For one moment it didn't seem threatening, even if he managed to shoot something out Petrovski was far enough to get away. Then something snapped in his mind, he was brought back a couple of moments earlier. Bond had kicked his arm away sending one of the bombs flying towards the gate, where he was now. Petrovski looked down and indeed not far from him there was a tiny little metal sphere looking up at him with a metallic glaze kept Petrovski's gaze. Moment from Bond snapped him out of the bomb's glare. Petrovski looked at Bond's movements and saw him push a familiar button on the armband.

007 

The explosion rocked Bond and Petrovski's body was lifted clean into the air and engulfed in hellish flames. Bond fell back on his behind and sat and watched as the flames scattered and started to die down. Bond stood up and brushed himself off. He threw the armband to the floor.

"That was a blast." He sarcastically mumbled. Bond jogged to the switches behind him and opened the gate to the other trucks that Petrovski had mentioned. Despite what Bond thought Petrovski wasn't lying there were a few trucks and a little station, Bond walked into the little station and pulled out the keys to the truck labeled four.

Bond went back to the other gate, which now had a hole in it, went through the hole and back to the damaged truck. To his surprise the other gate fell that separated the damaged truck to the main hall where the guards roamed.

"Paris…" Bond called; he yanked open the passenger seat door and Paris jumped out.

"I'm fine…" Paris said with her familiar attitude; she looked around and noticed Bond's lip was bleeding a little. "…What happened?" She asked pointing to his lip; Bond touched his lip and observed the blood that remained on his finger.

"I had an explosive run in with Petrovski..." Bond answered. "…There are some trucks over here." Bond explained.

"Have you got a plan?" Paris asked Bond; Bond thought for a moment and realized his plan wasn't really put together. As of now it consisted only of escaping, which wasn't very detailed.

"Yes." Bond lied; Paris got into the jeep and Bond went over to the switch again.

"Is that going to open the gate?" She asked.

"Yes, but when I open the gate we'll have to be fast in getting out and find a main road…" Bond explained. "…I'm going to need your help in order to get out of here." Bond concluded.

"Fine." She tersely answered; Bond put his hand against the switch and thought for a moment. This was going to be the end; they were going to get out of this alive. Bond flipped the switch and ran to the truck, slammed the door and pushed the key into the ignition and floored the acceleration.

The truck stalled for a moment and then trusted forward much faster than Bond thought it would, the gates raised up slowly but the truck careened past it into the main area.

The entire area was block off Bond maneuvered as best as he could around the barriers. The bullets started up again, but this time Bond was focus, the sun from the open gate was giving him the anxiousness he needed to get there. Bond crashed through a barricade and the sound ofthe collision was only overshadowed by the sound of the gate starting to come down.

"Get me that gun!" Bond ordered; Paris went behind his seat and picked up an automatic and handed it to Bond. Bond show out his side window and pointed the gun outside and starting shooting ahead of the truck. The truck swerved chaotically as Bond steered with one hand, Paris held on as hard as she could as the car began to straighten and crash through everything, the gate was coming down quickly and Bond was heading right towards it. Paris tried to estimate if they were going to make it or not, but it seemed as if the gate was going to be too low to get the truck under.

Bond pushed the truck as fast as it could, no longer where the bullets and the barricades any worry to him what was most important was getting outside. His entire focus was on getting outside, trucks were strong, it would last as long as they got out. The truck made a hard bump and was trusted right into the outside. Bond felt like taking a breath of relief but as he got the truck out there were other cars coming after them.

The truck sped on the road and the trees went by in a blur, the greens flurry mixed in with the dull grey of the road created a scene that was almost not of this world. Bond looked around to see if he could spot any other cars on the road and determine if there was a main road that led into the city. Something where he could use traffic as cover to get away; as of now though he saw nothing, Bond stole a glance into the rearview mirror and saw two cars and two motorcycles coming his way. Bond steered the truck further to the right to let one of the motorcycles pass. The roar of the motorcycle passing got stronger and Bond looked at it as it passed. Bond suddenly jerked the wheel to the left and the truck hit the side of the bike, the driver jumped off and grabbed onto the space where Bond's mirror would be and started to climb into the truck. Bond calmly brought back the automatic gun and pointed it to the driver's head when it came pass the door's frame.

"Good afternoon…" Bond jested; from the visor of the helmet the driver's eyes widen. "…I'll see you out." Bond kicked the door open and the man flew off of it, Bond leaned forward and pulled the closed. Bond pulled the truck closer to the left and looked into the rearview mirror and saw men sticking they're bodies out the windows with the same automatic weapons.

"James, up ahead!" Paris warned, Bond saw that the road went up and he couldn't see what was coming next.

"Go into the back and undo some of those canisters…" Bond ordered. "…We might as well give them a hard time." Bond muttered. The truck started upward and Bond tried to keep the truck as steady as possible, he could hear Paris undoing the straps on the canisters; shortly thereafter she reappeared.

"Ok." She said when she came back, Bond looked at her quickly.

"Do you think you can drive for a moment?" Bond asked, Paris gave him a look of uncertainty but then it dissolved.

"Yes I can." She answered, Bond nodded and she put her hands on the wheel as he got up and went into the back. Bond looked around and found the four canisters she set loose, he moved over to the doors and kicked them open, wind screamed inside and the bullets started to him. Bond ducked down and got himself behind one of the canisters. As hard as he could he pushed the heavy object it moved a little but Bond had to stop, the canister was too heavy. Bond positioned himself and with all his might kicked the canister and it flew out the doors of the truck. The canister hit the road and bounced up a little and hit the front of one of the cars. The car swerved for a moment and then went off the road and crashed somewhere below. Bond positioned himself again to kick another canister but a bullet came too close and he fell back. When he hit the floor the entire truck jerked violently and his body was thrown out of the doors, Bond grabbed the edge of the truck and pushed upwards. His feet were inches away from the ground that sped along under him.

"Paris!" Bond screamed but the sound of the wind, truck and bullets rushing by consumed his words. Bond's body flailed around only staying on the truck because he was now grasping a canister of the mystery mixture. Bond pulled as hard as he could, helpless to avoid the bullets which rained around him. Not before long his body was on the truck and he crept to the door as the truck roughly swerved around on the road.

When the door opened Paris was taken a little by surprised, but it dawned on her that it couldn't really have been anyone else but Bond. Bond grabbed her arm to signal she didn't have to drive anymore. Quickly they switched roles and Bond was back to driving.

"I saw something while you were back there." She started; the explosions of bullets had slowed but probably only meant that the men were reloading.

"What was it?" Bond asked stealing a glance into the rear view mirror He could see the car and motorcycle had backed off a lot more than made sense for capturing him. He took a mental note and looked back at the road.

"It was a truck…" Paris pointed to a large cluster of trees to the left and ahead of where they were. "…it wasn't one of Acosta's though." She finished; Bond put the statement into context and subsequently got the relevance of her mentioning it.

"Main road." He said she nodded; it had been what he was looking for, if could lose them on a main road and make it into a town he could disappear without much problem. Bond assumed that that meant there was a merging road up ahead, if Bond was lucky there'd be traffic, but not heavily. This truck wasn't the ideal vehicle to be driving and maneuvering around in, regardless of the fact though he'd rather take the chance with traffic than an open road.

Again he looked at he rearview mirror, the car and motorcycle had fallen back far. _'Too far'. _Bond looked around quickly and suspiciously, his eyes darted back and forward. '_It had to be around here.'_ He thought, he looked into the side view mirror and then went back to looking around.

"What is it?" Paris asked distressed by his actions. At first Bond didn't acknowledge her but after a moment or two he looked at her.

"Something isn't…" His voice trailed off and his eyes began to look away from Paris, staring behind her, before she could look back to see what Bond was looking at, he grabbed her by the neck and pushed her down simultaneously turning the car into a hard left turn.

Bullets invaded the truck from Paris' side; another group of cars had come up from a lower road. One car hit the side of the truck hard enough to lift it off the ground for a moment. Bond, however, was more concerned with being on the main road now rather than the new group of cars. The cars weren't normal though, they were very small, so small in fact that they could only fit two people in them, they had to have been specially made. It couldn't have been made in the place he'd just escape from, making cars took a lot of space and there was no proof. It only meant that somewhere, possibly in this large plant he had either built or was building in New Mexico, there was an even larger base of operations.

The road made a sharp right turn which Bond obeyed causing the truck to screech loudly among the roaring cars. Bond quickly realized that the small cars didn't only differ in size but also were superiorly faster than the average car. Not before long the small cars had managed to wedge themselves on either side of the truck and didn't fall off the road. To Bond's surprise the car on his side opened its doors and someone jumped out; a small thud accompanied there after. Bond wasn't exactly sure what was happening but the cars didn't directly engage the truck at all. Up ahead there was a smaller truck and from what Bond could see it was carrying a large flower bed in the back. As of now it was in the way, there was no way Bond could get past it, but ahead of that truck the road seemed to widen. The truck ahead almost guaranteed a town up ahead, unless it was delivering to a funeral home or something of that nature. That was good, all he to do was follow the flower truck and then get into town, after that he could-

"James!" Paris yelled a moment later her window was smashed in and a hand came in and grabbed Paris, perplexed for only a moment Bond did nothing. The entire body of the man appeared and tried to grab Paris out of the car, Bond leaned over but his body was suddenly grabbed and pulled back.

Bond found himself punched in the face before he could even piece together that this man was the one who jumped out of the car. On both of the men's arms there were large suction devices that obviously were used to hold on to the side of the truck. Bond grappled with the man who had a unusually sound grip, the man's body was almost completely inside the truck, Bond grabbed the man by the neck and tried to suppress him. One of the man's hand struggled with Bond, but what Bond didn't notice was that the other hand was reaching for something. Before Bond could stop the man from reaching the gun it was alright out. The gun was of the same surprise as the cars, it was a miniature shotgun. The size of the gun made it look laughable, but Bond already knew that it was far beyond that. He tried to keep the gun facing somewhere non threatening but between that, driving the truck, and trying to keep an eye on Paris that task was getting to be almost next to impossible. Somehow, in the immense chaos, the gun managed to get wedged between the man and the steering wheel. The only way the man could pull the gun out was to retreat back out the window. Bond elbowed the man in the face as hard as he could, only to be counter attacked with a very hard punch that sent his neck all the way to the right. While his face was in that direction he could see Paris was more or less holding her own against the man she was fighting with. This gave him a mild peace in his mind; at least he didn't have to immediately worry about Paris. The man grabbed Bond and pulled him towards the window, as if he was going to pull Bond out. The two men weren't fighting much because their hands were so intertwined, in this bodily confusion somehow, someone managed to pull the trigger of the gun and a loud violent explosion ripped through the truck. In the scare Bond was able to push the man back out the window and he gave a loud scream before he hit the ground. Bond went to grip the steering wheel but to his dismay the entire thing had been blown off, Bond grabbed the gun and pushed it roughly into the face of the man who was harassing Paris and that man suffered the same fate as the first.

Paris exhaled a sigh of relief; Bond did the same, Paris looked at the steering wheel and her eyes went wide.

"What are we going to do?" She asked; Bond was visibly upset, he looked down at the guns.

"We're going to have to stop and deal with them." Bond truthfully answered; Paris' face seemed morbid but there was something with the way Bond was carrying himself in the last few moments that assured her that he was going to get them out of here. Suddenly she could feel a drive in this man that she hadn't seen in him or any other man before. His power was alluring, the way his anger became a confident fury was so enticing.

"I trust you." She added; to Bond that was more than three words, when she said that she gave Bond all the ammunition he needed to get them out of here alive. Bond had a license to kill and now was the time to use it.

"First I've got to stop this truck." Bond said; he moved his foot to step on the brake, but to his surprise his foot went through a hole. Bond quickly pulled his foot out of the hole and glared at the hole.

"God damn it!" Paris hissed; Bond grimaced and looked around, the flower truck was still ahead of them, there were a lot of flowers.

Suddenly he had a plan, but the acceleration would have to work to implement it. With a bit of a prayer Bond pushed down harder on the pedal and the truck sped up a little. "_Good_" he thought. He pressed down hard on it and the burst of speed was obvious.

"I have a plan…" Bond said. "…I still need your help however" Bond went on; Paris nodded.

"Whatever you need." Paris offered; Bond gestured at the guns and looked at her.

"Pass me one of those guns and then undo strap another canister in the back." Bond dictated; Paris got up and obeyed, Bond took the gun and looked into her eyes for a moment. In that everything stopped, for that moment they were connected and safe. They both knew this was it and then it passed she was out of his sight. Bond turned to the broken window and started shooting at the car; he attacked the car with as many bullets as he could, the car swerved and fell back, part one was done. Paris returned and put her hand on his shoulder.

"Good girl" Bond said and he got up and gestured for her to take the wheel for a moment. Bond got up and went into the back and struggled to lift one of the canisters. After a loud and laborious sigh Bond returned with the canister, Paris got up to help him but he made a face the insisted that she just move out his way. Gruffly Bond landed the canister on the accelerator and the Truck sped up.

"You're going to have to jump off the truck…" Bond blandly stated, Paris seemed to protest in her face but there was no other idea she could come up with, "…The truck is going to come up to that flower truck and we're going to jump in unnoticed." Bond explained; Paris wrinkled her face thinking how dangerous it seemed.

"Where are we going to jump from?" She asked.

"The driver's seat door…" Bond went on. "…it'll have to be quick because the truck is going to go off a cliff in a moment." Bond finished; Pairs was surprised by his calm demeanor, every word that came from Bond's mouth was without much expression, in fact the aloofness to the current situation registered to Paris as anger.

Bond kicked open the door and looked back to see if the car was coming back around but as he had hoped the rain of bullets had prompted the drivers to try and stop the truck rather than stop Bond. The truck was catching up with the smaller shabbier truck, which sometimes sputtered and was inconsistent in its own speed. The jump would have to be precise, the turn was coming up and the truck would need to catch up to the other before the turn because after the turn Bond had no doubt that the road would widen and the cars would be back on his side again. This way they could escape unnoticed, if there was one thing that Bond had learned it was that being the only thing that was worse than dying was being alive and hunted, and that the only thing that was better than being alive was being mistaken for dead. That was exactly what he intended to do; if Acosta thought Bond was dead it would be easier to get in and out of his affairs. The safety line was thin however, if the truck didn't reach the truck before the turn then the plan was finished, plus if anyone of the people saw Bond and Paris jump on the back of the truck Bond would have to find another plan to get them out of that mess.

Before he knew it it was time to jump. Bond picked up the guns and gave it to Paris.

"When you jump take these with you." He explained; she nodded and took the guns. Paris didn't see but Bond frowned, this was going was going to be close. The back of the flower truck was at the fender of Bond's truck.

"What about the door?" Paris asked; but Bond was ahead of her he had the mini shotgun and blasted the door off the truck, the lines of the road were speeding by and it made Paris a bit nauseous for a moment but she looked away and as the back of the flower trucks got closer, she readied herself to jump. Bond touched her arm for a moment.

"Don't be scared." He said; she smiled and nodded.

When she jumped she hit the flowers like a soft bed, her bodied bounced a little but other than that she was fine, Bond was relieved and leaned forward to jump and when he tossed his body the entire truck jerked.

His entire jump was interrupted when the truck swerved a little, What Bond couldn't see was that one of the men had shot the back tire of the truck and it was starting to careen out of control. Bond's body landed an inch off of target and he found himself hanging off the end of the truck. Paris leaned over the truck and tried to pull him up, but the truck they had been occupying careened into the flower truck and his body flailed about and she almost was tossed out.

"Go hide..!" Bond demanded. "…get under the flowers and hide!" Bond demanded as the flower truck was roughly pummeled by the larger truck, Bond's feet touched the ground with a horrid screech, reflexively he pulled them up and tried to gain a grip on something, but the flowers were so silky and every time he rested his arms on something the flowers ensured that he slipped back.

The truck stalled for a moment and Bond thought he may have been thrown off the truck but instead his body was thrown into the mound of flowers. With that he put the rest of his body into the flowers and clutched Paris' body under the flowers.

Not a moment later there was a terrible groaning and then a loud crashing that shook the ground under the truck, Bond sighed and rested for a moment.

The truck stopped and Bond could feel it turn around, the driver got out and had a small conversation with the men who were in the cars. The men were extremely dismissive but the flower truck driver was there equal, if not superior, in being nosey.

"Was there anyone in there?" Bond heard the man ask; there was a long pause that Bond could sense was to dismiss the man from getting or wanting an answer but to his surprise after a long while one of the men answered.

"Yes but however it was they're dead now." The man answered; this gave Bond a good feeling and he relaxed.

"You'd be wise not to mention this to anyone…" a new man started. "…We have to tell the authorities and make a report." The man finished; Bond could hear the truck driver grumble but also agree and not before long they were moving again.

007 

Bond and Paris were let out in a small village, When they emerged from the flowers the driver had quite a scare but Bond reassured the man that everything was fine and that he and his lady friend were just trying to find a hotel after being lost in the woods for days. The man then smiled when he saw Paris and shrugged off the situation.

Bond and Paris walked around and eventually found a suitable spot to find a dress and suit. After shopping for a bit they found a nice hotel a couple of miles west of the town. Bond was doing all he could to ease Paris' nerves. She wasn't a British agent or of any denomination of that sort and she had been through one hell of a ride. So for the rest of the day he didn't mention Acosta or any of the preceding events until dinner. They were sitting down, each of the drinking their respective drinks, Bond with his usual Vodka martini and Paris with a Tequila straight up, when Paris voiced an opinion.

"It won't be long until Acosta sends for that Wolffe character to find me…" She said. "…or worse Acosta comes personally" Paris said calmly, her words betrayed her feelings, despite the fact that she was expressing her fear she was very calm and almost stoic.

"I have my doubts about that…" Bond said as he sipped his drink, he looked her in the eyes. "…they think you and I are dead, and I'm sure his men would rather report us dead rather than admit to Acosta that they lost the two of us." Bond said; Paris shrugged she genuinely seemed uninterested in the subject now.

"He'll be more wary of you now that you killed Petrovski." Paris said after a long moment. Bond sat back and thought for a moment to answer the question.

"Whatever connection Petrovski gave him is now lost…" Bond answered. "…It would have been helpful if I knew what it was." Bond said; Paris nodded.

"Well it's over now." She said.

"Indeed it is." Bond said.

Despite all they had been through, that was the extent of the dinner, there was no further bonding, however it was simply because each was waiting for the other to make a move, this was out of character for both the man and the woman but they had managed to do it to one another. When they reached the hotel the sudden decision came from Paris to share a room and Bond followed easily.

The two of them were not too long involved in a fest of sexual crescendo, they were passionate and they were reckless. The world spun, there was too much involved in this sex for Bond, it hadn't been like this with the others. He cared for them, sure, but he most certainly didn't love them. Paris offered something that only one woman had done before. When they had finished and she had fallen asleep Bond laid up most of the night wondering what had happened, she had gotten close, and she had seen Bond in a way that no one had seen him before. Worse than pain, worse than fear, but love it was the only thing a gun was powerless against. His heart pounded loudly and he closed his eyes to calm it afraid that Paris would hear and not before long he was asleep.

The sound of the phone ringing persistently woke him, in a groggy daze he reached over to find out what the hell the people downstairs could possibly want from him in this hour of the morning. His arm fished around and he was forced to sit up and look with his eyes. Bond picked up the phone ready to give whoever decided to interrupt his sleeping an earful of anger. Roughly and hurting his ear a bit Bond placed the phone to his ear.

"Bond…" He answered, he was ready to start his barrage of attacks but the voice on the other end stifled him.

"Come back immediately 007." M's voiced said stern and terse. From the sound of M's voice something had happened, he seemed apprehensive, and thus closed this portion of the investigation.

"Yes sir" Bond answered and hung the phone up. It didn't take him long to dress and do all the necessary procedures for departure. When he was ready to leave he looked back and the sleeping woman in the bed. He then went to leave, when the door opened the bed rustled.

"Where are you going?" Paris asked, Bond turned to her and in her drowsiness she couldn't see the remorse in his eyes as he said:

"I'll be right back."


	18. It's Time to Resign 007

Chapter Eighteen

It's time to Resign 007

Bond was back at MI6 in less than a day, when he arrived he followed the protocol and tossed his newly bought hat onto the coat rack to announce his entrance. Moneypenny, as always, looked pleased to see Bond. It was evident that she was worried when he went missing by her first sly response.

"It's good to see you made it back alive James." Moneypenny announced, Bond crossed over to her desk laid the slightest kiss on her cheek.

"I do try my best." Bond commented, Moneypenny leaned over and pressed her cheek onto his.

"Between you and I…" She pointed to M's door. "…He's been very upset since you arrived in Greece." Moneypenny revealed.

"Really…?" Bond asked; Moneypenny nodded. Bond put his arm on his chest in a gesture meant to resemble bravery. "…than I shall be careful" said Bond overdramatically. Before he got to the door Moneypenny placed her hand on his shoulder.

"Not too careful…" She started. "…I like my men shaken." She finished with a smirk of victory. Bond blushed slightly in the rare moment in which Moneypenny outwitted him; the embarrassment was interesting but enjoyable.

"..Never stirred." He said with an uncontrollable smile and then entered M's office.

The museum had not changed one bit since Bond had last been there, in fact to Bond it seemed as if M had not moved at all, still going over papers casually ignoring Bond when he entered the room. Bond stood behind the chair and continued the protocol.

It was longer this time, M really was doing his best to ignore the fact that Bond had stepped in. Bond watched as he flicked his wrist in the unmistakably sharp way he signed his name. Bond was trying to see what M was signing but as he looked over a little more the paper was snatched back and M was looking Bond in the eye.

"Sir." Bond greeted; ignored the greeting and arranged some papers on his desk.

"007 have you anything to report that's worthwhile?" M asked sharply; Bond thought for a moment and then gestured at the chair.

"May I…?" Bond asked; M nodded.

"Be my guest." Bond sat and there was a little pause as Bond thought.

"After being captured in Greece Acosta took me to some secret liar of his where he was shipping his product back and forwards…" Bond started. "…While I was there I observed he was shipping canisters containing a substance with a chemical formula of C17H19NO3 at the time I wasn't sure what the substance was but on my way back here I remembered…" Bond took a pause to see if M as following him; the two men stared at one another for a long moment in silence until M started to lose his patience.

"Continue 007…" M growled.

"…yes sir. I remembered that it's the chemical formula for Morphine…" Bond said. "…The process of getting the opium to Morphine is extensive, last I remember, Acosta would need a processing plant to do that." Bond theorized.

"Go on…" M said to avoid the long pause.

"When I was there I found plans for a processing plant of some sort in New Mexico, I would assume that he's converting it there and shipping to Greece using the ports in Jamaica, the question is where is the final product going." Bond revealed; another pause started and this time Bond was waiting for M to go on.

"Unfortunately 007 that is a question MI6 will not be able to answer." M stated; Bond looked confused.

"What do you mean sir?" Bond asked; M snatched the paper back into view and handed over to Bond, in big black letters on the top it read 'RESIGNATION LETTER'

"I took the liberty of having Miss Moneypenny write up your resignation letter and signing it…" M knew very well that his answer wasn't enough for Bond regardless of the fact however he didn't continue.

"I don't understand why sir, I've made immense progress in the last day. I have no doubt that this plant in New Mexico will give us the information we need to capture Acosta himself." Bond protested.

"That's all very fine 007 but I cannot involve MI6 in this any longer." M said the slight sound of disappointment in his voice.

"What do you mean?" Bond asked. There was another pause however this one was shorter than the others.

"The Jamaican's weren't very happy with your theatrics while you were there, and decided to appeal to the C.I.A. Some one pulled their weight around and now the N.A.T.O. has decided that our investigation is done, that we out stepped our boundaries and are a…" He paused and sneered. "…'_counterproductive'_ part of the investigation." M finished.

"I would assume we are suspecting Acosta in influencing them." Bond suggested.

"It's seems more than a coincidence that Acosta had a small landing in Jamaica." M revealed; Bond frowned.

"Do we know where he is now?" Bond asked; M gave him a stern look.

"Back to America…" M said. "…Undoubtedly to your base in New Mexico that, also coincidentally mind you, the C.I.A. managed to miss." M finished; Bond sat forward.

"The mole is still out there and I have a feeling he or she is working with the Americans…" Bond said in his voice he hinted that he knew something else. "…When I landed in Greece I heard that there were four bodies found in the destroyed building. One man they identified as a Justin Ramos, and the other three were in K.G.B. attire and one of the being identified as a Willard Jackson, an American." Bond explained; M looked flabbergasted at Bond's last statement.

"An American K.G.B. officer…?" M asked, his tongue lay stifled for a moment. "…this is worse than I imagined. I would guess those rumors are true." M finished.

Recently a rash of rumors had gone around, each of them involving the Soviet Union's deal with the people of Afghanistan. Some said that the America government and the Russians had created the cold war to dominate the areas around them and that there was no real threat of a nuclear attack whatsoever, others believed that the American's had a nuclear bomb in Russia already and was waiting for some form of attack to cause havoc in the country. The most prominent of the rumors was that, the reason the Russian's weren't as vocal in the cold war lately was because they had American 'defectors' working for them. The Americans weren't very happy with this rumor and there was a low profile investigation going on, but nothing ever came of it. With Acosta working for Petrovski though and the fact that there was a mole, gave a lot to the rumor.

"More than likely; If they're working with Acosta then he would knows everything the C.I.A. knows." Bond said.

"Well that's all not your concern…" M said bringing the weight of reality back to the conversation. "…I'm sorry 007 but you're done with this investigation." M concluded; Bond for a moment looked distressed and it reminded M of the older days when bond was younger and just made it into being a 00 agent, but not before long he became stern.

"But sir…"

"007 you are officially off the assignment and I have no other assignments for you…" M started, he then slowed his speech considerably. "…if you were to go and investigate in your leave ob absence you would not be under the jurisdiction of MI6, you'd be working as a rouge agent…" M's voice trailed off and Bond smiled.

"I see sir…" Bond started. "…and thank-"

"Goodbye 007…" M cut off. "…I'm sure you're C.I.A. friends won't being waiting for you in New Mexico and I'm sure that Q won't have anything for you." M said and in a moment he went back to his paper work. Bond didn't say anymore and left M's office.

After a brief conversation with Moneypenny on the processes of being safe as a rouge agent, Bond went straight to Q's laboratory. Although neither of them would admit it, Bond and Q both felt relieved to see the other. Being back in the laboratory was a welcome feeling to them both as well. As always several of Q's workers were testing ideas that seemed half witted or seemed to have no significant use to a spy. Bond recognized one of the workers named Perry; he was playing with what seemed to be a vacuum, cleaning the floors and whatnot, but when he pressed a certain button the cleaner opened and his entire body was thrown inside the bag. This took Bond by surprise for a moment and then he caught his composure and went over to Q.

"Q…" Bond greeted, Q gave Bond a look and then went back to the man he was talking to and pointed at something on a paper before dismissing the man.

"Alright 007 lets get to it…" Q started. "…as I understand it you're working as a rouge agent so most of the equipment you're getting is unofficial." Q explained.

"I hope that means that they work." Bond muttered; Q flashed Bond an angry look.

"All my equipment works 007…" Q snapped. "…It's not my fault that your dimwitted antics manages to get them destroyed before you can use them." Q finished.

"Right…" Bond said. "…that must be it."

"First you can take another one of these…" Q handed over another one of the small communicators. "…despite being a rouge agent M insist on being in contact with you, and I've also managed to get rid of the little problem of it exploding." Q confessed.

"I noticed that little bug when I was in Greece." Said Bond quietly.

"The frequency isn't coded so the signal will not go through MI6 but straight to M himself…" Q explained. "…Now Bond take of your belt." Q demanded, Bond eyes went wide for a moment and then he looked at Q a bit strangely.

"I'm sorry Q but you're not my type." Bond said sarcastically.

"Oh grow _up_ 007…" Q reprimanded as Bond took off his belt. "…now see here. Ordinary belt made of leather…" Q smacked the belt on the table and it made a loud _thwack_. "…here in the buckle there is a button press this like so and the belt becomes rigid in any shape that it was being held at the moment you pressed the button." Q smacked the belt on the table again but this time the belt was like steel and went straight through the table and the table collapsed upon itself.

"Real leather?" Bond asked; Q ignored his comment and pressed the button again and the belt went back to normal, he curled the belt and pressed the button and the belt went rigid with the belt still in the curves.

"I'm particularly fond of this one…" Q admitted. "…took a while to create."

"Sure…" Bond dismissed. "…how do I get it to explode?" Bond asked; Q glared at him.

"It doesn't…" Q snapped again. "…but knowing you, you'll find a way!" Q mumbled some more and moved passed Bond.

Q picked up a watch and looked over it for a moment and then shoved it towards Bond.

"Another new watch?" Bond asked, Q gave him the most vicious of glares and even that stifled Bond's tongue.

"Same refinements as the other one however you'll notice that if you press this button here…" Q pointed at the button. "…an ultra sonic sound wave that guarantees to break any type of glass." Q explained.

"Good…" Bond said. "…anything else?" Bond asked.

"Yes 007…" Q went on. "…If you turn the watch face counter clockwise and do the same thing the watch will emit a fl ash of pure fluorescent light which will blind anyone without proper protection for at least thirty seconds." Q finished.

"That sounds handy…" Bond said. "…Q, what time is it?" Bond asked. Q looked at his own watch and frowned.

"Three ten…" Q answered. "…why?" Q asked.

"Because the watch you gave me says its twelve thirty two." Bond answered; Q looked at Bond's watch and frowned.

"Well I didn't set the time…." Q complained. "…I thought you'd be capable of doing that yourself." Q barked, Bond nodded and proceeded to change the time.

"Thanks Q" Bond made a note of saying before he left, Q's anger subsided and Q gave a very sincere look.

"Your welcome 007…" He turned to do something before turning to face Bond again. "…And come back in one piece."

007 

The trip to America was like all the others: uneventful and tiring. It seemed that every time Bond traveled to the U.S. he found himself drained of energy; this time wasn't any exception but it was good to know that Felix would be waiting for him when he got there. Also without having to abide by the rules of MI6 Bond was able to even be more, as he liked to call it, 'creative' in getting the job done. One of the last things he had been told before leaving London was a report on what the C.I.A. had already found at Acosta's stronghold in New Mexico. Apparently the American's weren't aware of the stronghold being built and Acosta had done it with the supervision of the local government and they hadn't bothered to report that to the higher government. What was going on in the facility was unknown; Acosta had only merely mentioned that it was some sort of biological preserve which was good enough to get a permit to build. Inspectors were sent but they never reported in detail what they found and Acosta had insisted their round-about ways were of no convincing from him. Either way MI6 as well as their C.I.A. counter parts knew that Acosta's influence went a long way. However there was still nothing that could be used against Acosta legally, Petrovski was dead and the exporting of Morphine wasn't illegal. Hopefully in this stronghold of his there was something concrete enough to use to have more support.

When he landed he landed in the same airport as last time and the same scene unfolded. Waiting for him was Gonzales in a similar but different suit in front of a car. Bond smiled as he came close enough to recognize Gonzales.

"Gonzales good to see you again." Bond said sincerely, for it was true Bond had a liking for the small man. He was respectful and smart and Bond knew he'd be as good as Felix Leiter in years to come. Gonzales looked relieved to see Bond as he stepped closer and took off his hat to shake Bond's hand; it was something Americans rarely did anymore and to see him do it now was surprising and reassuring at the same time.

"Mr. Bond I must say seeing you here has been the best thing I've seen in the last couple of days." Gonzales confessed; Bond gave a curious look.

"What's been happening?" Bond asked; Gonzales walked to the car and out of habit began to open the door for Bond but Bond stopped him before he could and got into the car himself. The car didn't take long to pull off and with a sigh Gonzales began.

"I assume that the reason you were taken off the assignment was because MI6 came under pressure by the U.N. from Jamaica. Well the C.I.A. got the same heat but it was harder here because they held Felix directly responsible, the few days you were gone he was taken and questioned about everything he knew about the investigation, of course Felix didn't give them the time of day and was honorably removed from the assignment. When Miss Goodhead found she was furious and went to our director and tried to angrily appeal to him, I wasn't there but I heard her choice of words wasn't academic and the director gave her the same treatment as Felix. Then they came to us, Morales and I, and told us that we weren't needed and we were to do what we 'felt was right' so we decided to follow Felix and Goodhead." Gonzales explained; Bond slowly nodded taking in what he had just heard.

"I see…" Bond said. "…interesting."

"But that's not all…" Gonzales started again. "…The field agent Jackson, the one Morales gave the security tapes to, he was found dead in the desert and the tapes were no where to be found. The best part though was where they found his body which was right outside our desert headquarters, which means whoever killed him knew that there was a base there, as a precaution they closed the entire thing down and now they're sure that the mole is somewhere in the C.I.A. close to the assignment. I'm not supposed to tell you but originally they suspected Jackson had something to do with it and now there's this other guy, who I've never liked, named Gerald who they are _sure_ is the mole." Gonzales went on; Bond thought hard and nodded.

"Have they arrested this Gerald yet?" Bond asked.

"No sir Mr. Bond, they think he'll pursue us on this chase and then we can deal with it ourselves that way the entanglements of the C.I.A. can be avoided." Gonzales explained.

"I see, so maybe I'll have my chance to deal with him." Bond muttered.

"Its possible, but I warn you now Mr. Bond be careful. This man is a high level C.I.A. agent, he's very dangerous." Gonzales warned not looking back from the road.

"I'm sure I can handle it myself." Bond said; Gonzales smiled.

"I know you can…" Gonzales said. "…I wouldn't want to see him too hurt though." Gonzales joked; Bond chuckled and they continued down the road.

It took about an hour and half of driving to the desert and then a half hour of walking in the desert until they came across a large jeep like vehicle; sitting in the vehicle was Goodhead, Morales and a very calm looking Felix Leiter. Bond knew what this meant, usually Felix was a bit apprehensive but whenever he was calm it was worse it mean he was aiming for trouble not too far away. He calmed himself right before he was prepared to let loose. The other thing that caught Bond's eye, or rather didn't catch Bond's eye, was the lack of other vehicles.

"Welcome back James…" Felix greeted with an insincere happiness. "…I assume Gonzales filled you in on all the good news?" Felix added. Bond nodded and walked around the side of the vehicle where Leiter was laying lazily.

"Yes he did…" Bond answered. "…I was wondering, Leiter, where are the other vehicles and people?" Bond asked. Felix gave a mischievous smile and sat up.

"That's the best part of all…" He started. "…I didn't qualify to have a private garrison to help me on this one. Whoever you see here is who's coming in." Felix revealed; Bond looked around; almost hoping that there might have been someone he had missed when he came to the vehicle no more than a minute ago. However the count remained the same: "Goodhead, Leiter, Morales, Gonzales and himself.

"I couldn't think of a better team." Bond answered with a force smile. The heat wasn't really adding to the tension, Goodhead and Leiter looked annoyed and Morales stuck to himself, it was clear that no one was extremely excited about this (save for the fact that Felix might have been anxious to shoot someone.)

"If you're worried about equipment don't be…" Goodhead finally spoke. "…There's a big metal case on the other side of the car; all the guns you could want." Goodhead explained; Bond happily nodded and stood there as if waiting for something. No one did anything for two minutes and then Felix popped up suddenly and went over to Morales.

"Any sign of Gerald?" Felix asked; Morales disappointedly shook his head.

"We saw him following us before we got here but we lost him…" Morales explained. "…I'm sure he'll show up later on." Morales said as optimistic as his voice and attitude would allow; Felix scoffed, not disrespectfully, but agitated, at the comment.

"I can't wait to put a few in him…" Felix trailed off into a string of curses that didn't formulate a Standard English sentence.

"So what exactly is the plan?" Bond asked; Felix was off in another, more, profane world so Goodhead answered.

"We have nothing on Acosta and we have to find something illegal to stick to him…" She paused in a brief moment of agitation. "…So we're hoping we find something in here." She finished.

"What if we don't?" Bond had sense enough not to ask the question but felt that it needed to be asked anyhow.

"If we don't…" Felix interjected returning back to earth. "…then Acosta gets off." Felix simply answered.

"Operation "hoax" is ended?" Bond asked.

"Not only that but sealed and deleted…" Goodhead returned to the conversation with such conviction that the tone of her voice startled Bond. "…The government was nothing more to do with him; he's been a thorn in there side and they have other issues." Goodhead tried to say it with as much understanding for the governments' predicament as she had in her being but it sill came out to be a bit ruthless.

"Well I don't know what's in there…" Bond made clear. "…I'm sure since he has a lot to do with Morphine and Opium then next must be heroine." Bond said; Goodhead nodded in agreement.

"I'm sure this is the refining plant." She said; Bond frowned.

"Wasn't that in his estate?" He answered.

"Yes but for something as delicate as converting poppies into heroine you would need a larger workstation, and, judging from the amount of poppies he has, I would say he produces a lot of Morphine or heroine in one day. This facility looks like the place to do it." Goodhead's explanation was a bit snappy which she realized and gave a brief unbelievable smile at the end.

"Have you seen the place already?" Bond asked; Felix came back from around the vehicle with an automatic he prized it and pointed in all directions.

"There were some flyby shots taken by the local government that we had to, nearly, steal from them." Felix sneered.

"Is it large?" Bond asked; Felix made a whistling sound to indicate the size, to Bond it was something only American's did.

"Its gigantic." Goodhead simply answered.

"The more space, the more illegal activity." Bond mused. Goodhead lost the punch line of the joke and yawned. Bond looked out to the horizon; whatever was going to happen now was going to be the beginning of the end. there was nothing else Acosta could do but kill Bond. Bond was certain that this stronghold was going to be the key to bringing Acosta down.

"We brought enough equipment to equip a small battalion of American troops." Leiter interrupted the silence.

"Good…" Bond said. "…at least we know we'll be able to get in." Bond mused, Leiter smiled at the comment.

"Don't knock the American resources…" Leiter started. "…let's not forget how many times I saved your skin Santiago." Leiter added extra emphasis on the 'Santiago', it was a name Leiter had given Bond years ago on the _Thunderball_ assignment, he hadn't heard it in a long time, hearing Leiter use the name again gave Bond a sense of calm.

Bond and Leiter had been friends for quite some time now, and the score as of now was that Leiter had saved Bond's life more times than Bond had saved his. The Texan was one of Bond's favorite people and was in somewhat of the same class as M. Leiter never asked Bond twice when he needed something if Bond requested it Leiter appealed to his, sometimes pigheaded, government and got Bond what he needed in enough time. When Bond was investigating Auric Goldfinger, and was undeniably in a bind when Goldfinger had him on a short leash held by his massive bodyguard: Oddjob, Bond's only option for survival was to make a reward note hidden in the bathroom stall of an airplane with the message to contact Felix Leiter. Goldfinger's plan was to poison an entire city of people in order to invade and rob Fort Knox using an atomic weapon. When they arrived though Felix had gotten the message and ambushed Goldfinger's band of thugs and saved not only Bond's life but thousands of people. That was just one time operation _Thunderball_, perhaps Bond's most dangerous operation to date, had forced Bond into a position in which he was almost powerless. The hijacking of two atomic bombs and holding up the entire United States and England was S.P.E.C.T.RE.'s plan and when Bond found the first bomb he needed Leiter's help with the C.I.A. to keep Emilio Largo from taking the other and getting away. S.P.E.C.T.R.E.'s plan was ambitious there was no way Bond could have gotten it done without Felix's help.

"Touché my friend" Bond said, he looked at the suit on the truck, Goodhead noticed his inquiry.

"We should start getting those on; they'll help us carry all the guns we'll need." She said. Bond nodded and picked up one of the suits. They were a lot lighter than he expected; he was able to easily slip it on and still felt comfortable with it on. The others did the same but Leiter didn't look amused by the suit instead he moved around, seemingly, uncomfortably and made a face at Bond.

"All the money in the world and they still give us jackets that itch." Leiter complained; Bond grunted neutrally and swung around the Beretta he brought along pointing it into the distance imagining Acosta's face directly ahead, after testing the way the Beretta came out of the holster several times he was satisfied and let it rest in the hip holster. There were enough holsters to fit somewhere around twenty five to thirty guns including some of the larger automatic weapons. It took at least a half of an hour to get the equipment into order, with he guns on the suits it was considerably heavier but still Bond still found himself able to move around freely. Bond smiled, Goodhead looked so professional and dangerous in her outfit, her face was formed with such a tired malice that Bond found himself slightly nervous by her presence. However he could understand her anger, the American's had left it to them to deal with a situation they had initiated; Bond could be angry as well but he wasn't.

"I guess all we have to do now is leave." Gonzales said with a hint of uncertainty. There was a long pause when no one knew what exactly to do now.

"I don't suppose we could drive up to the front door and ask to be let in." Morales said, Leiter scratched his head and made a gesture towards Bond.

"Knowing god ole' Santiago over here, we'll end up crashing our way through a wall or something." Bond smirked at the comment.

"Well let's see…." Bond started. "…how fast can this thing go?" Bond asked, Leiter made a face that was of either approval or uncertainty.

"However fast you need it to go?" Leiter asked.

"Good…" Bond answered dryly. "…Do we need to bring it back?" Bond asked.

"That's not a concern of mine James…" Leiter answered looking away.

"Well we'll get in there and then take a look around. If we find anything "illegal" then we'll have something and we can leave and if we don't find anything, which is unlikely, then we'll still give these sons of bitches something to whine about." Bond explained; Goodhead smiled which made Bond feel more at ease.

"Sounds alright to me..." She commented; she cocked on of her guns quickly and put it in a holster around her breast.

"Yeah; I've been waiting to blow something up since I heard I'd be working with you again James." Leiter admitted.

"I suppose that means we have the right to shoot anything." Morales asked; Leiter made a satisfied grunt.

"I will…" He said. "…trust me."

"Just don't shoot my fox: Acosta…" Bond commented; Leiter made a loud disapproving sound.

"Ah hell James I don't know about that. It takes the fun out of it." Leiter said.

"You can shoot an arm or something." Bond compromised.

"Sounds like a plan…" Leiter nodded. "…That pretty boy has got one hell of a beating coming to him." Leiter sneered.

"Now, now Leiter…" Bond started. "…Let's not forget you have a countries reputation to hold." Bond reminded.

"Tell that to the president." Leiter answered tersely; Bond smiled happily at Leiter's answer.

"We have orders to arrest Acosta." Goodhead reminded; Leiter made a sound of disgust that echoed on the wind as he kicked up a little sand like a child who has been deprived of his ice cream treat.

"I forgot about that…" Leiter muttered. "…The government is insisting that Acosta be arrested; if he is killed then they'll hold the British Secret service responsible." Leiter explained.

"You're joking." Bond said seriously.

"Afraid not; they want him alive."

"What if one of you shoots him?" Bond asked; Leiter made a face of dissatisfaction.

"I'm afraid that the British Secret Service is still responsible…" Leiter said. "…Not to worry my friend, Goodhead and I won't shoot him. Morales is a perfect shot and Gonzales is a horrible shot." Leiter chuckled; Gonzales gave a phony offended smile.

"Well I hope so…" Bond frowned. "…I've never really "arrested" anyone before." Bond admitted; Goodhead came around and placed her hand on his shoulder.

"Whenever you feel like pulling the trigger…" She started. "…bite your bottom lip." She suggested.

"I'll try that; you'll have to show me how to do it a little later though." Bond teased; Goodhead gave a smile that said 'you can try pretty boy but it won't work.'

"You silly ole limey…" Leiter joked affectionately. "...better stop hitting on my workers." He happily warned.

"Yes sir…" Bond stood rigid like a man of the service; he leaned closer to Morales and Goodhead. "…I wouldn't want to upset a trigger happy Texan." He whispered; Morales found the joke funny and let free an impish like snicker.

With a strong gust of air the sand was blown about the place and everyone stood silent thinking of what was really going to come next, somewhere in the distance a bird was making a call, most likely to alert its cohorts of a dead carcass to feed on for the next few hours, as if that were his cue, Leiter got into the vehicle and sighed.

"Let's get going."


End file.
